YELLOW 



BUTTER-AND-EGGS. TOADFLAX. 



Linaria vulgaris. Figwort Family. 



Stem. Smooth, erect, one to three feet high. Leaves. Alternate, linear 

 or nearly so. Flowers. Of two shades of yellow, growing in terminal ra- 

 cemes. Calyx. Five-parted. Corolla. Pale yellow tipped with orange, 

 long-spurred, two-lipped, closed in the throat. Stamens. Four. Pistil. 

 One. 



The bright blossoms of butter -and -eggs grow in full, close 

 clusters which enliven the waste places along the roadside so 

 commonly, that little attention is paid to these beautiful and con- 

 spicuous flowers. They would be considered a " pest ' ' if they did 

 not display great discrimination in their choice of locality, usu- 

 ally selecting otherwise useless pieces of ground. The common 

 name of butter-and-eggs is unusually appropriate, for the two 

 shades of yellow match perfectly their namesakes. Like nearly all 

 our common weeds, this plant has been utilized in various ways by 

 the country people. It yielded what was considered at one time 

 a valuable skin lotion, while its juice mingled with milk consti- 

 tutes a fly-poison. Its generic name, Linaria, and its English 

 title, toadflax, arose from a fancied resemblance between its leaves 

 and those of the flax. 



WILD SENNA. 



Cassia Marilandica. Pulse Family. 



Stem. Three or four feet high. Leaves. Divided into from six to nine 

 pairs of narrowly oblong leaflets. Flowers. Yellow, in short clusters from 

 the axils of the leaves. Calyx. Of five sepals. Corolla. Of five slightly 

 unequal, spreading petals, usually somewhat spotted with reddish brown. 

 Stamens. Five to ten, unequal, some of them often imperfect. Pistil. 

 One. Pod. Long and narrow, slightly curved, flat. 



This tall, striking plant, with clusters of yellow flowers which 

 appear in midsummer, grows abundantly along many of the New 

 England roadsides, and also far south and west, thriving best in 

 sandy soil. Although a member of the Pulse family its blossoms 

 are not papilionaceous. 



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