134 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



TOAD FLAX (Linaria vulgaris Hill.) 



Other English names: Butter and Eggs, Ramsted, Wild 

 Snapdragon, Flaxweed, Eggs and Bacon, Yellow Toad Flax. 



Other Latin names: Linaria Linaria (L.) Karst; Antirrhinum 

 Linaria L. 



Introduced from Europe. A persistent, deep-rooted peren- 

 nial. Stem erect, slender, becoming wiry. Hairless, slightly 

 waxy. Leaves, stalkless, extremely numerous, mostly alter- 

 nate, linear, without teeth or divisions, acute at both ends. 

 Flowers nearly an inch long, showy pale yellow with orange 

 lips, borne in erect dense racemes; the 2-lobed corolla closed 

 and mouth-like, but, by gentle pressure at the sides, it opens 

 and closes like the muzzle of an animal. 



The seed (Plate 75, fig. 67) is about 1/12 of an inch in diameter 

 including the wing dark brown to black, fiat, round or oval, 

 disc-like, roughened with tubercles and surrounded with a 

 circular wing, as broad as the seed itself, finely radiate. 



Time of flowering: June to September; seeds ripe by August. 



. Propagation: By seeds and rootstocks. 



Occurrence: Quite common in eastern Canada. Spreading 

 rapidly, especially in light and shallow soils. 



Injury: A persistent weed in waste places, roadsides, meadows 

 and crops. 



Remedy: Short rotation of crops with deep, thorough 

 cultivation in spring and fall will suppress it. Hand-pulling 

 when the soil is wet is effective in pasture lands that can not 

 be cultivated. Badly infested meadows or pasture lands should 

 be brought under cultivation by plowing in July, summer- 

 fallowing until autumn, and planting with hoed crop the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



