TOAD-FLAX. 359 



brous, light green, tough, leafy above, simple, or slightly 

 branched towards the summit, and varies from one to three 

 feet in height. The leaves are sessile, erectly spreading, numer- 

 ous, scattered, crowded towards the summit of the stem, 

 linear-lanceolate, acute, entire, somewhat revolute at the margin, 

 and of a pale glaucous green colour. The flowers are dis- 

 posed in a terminal erect raceme, in an imbricated manner ; 

 each flower supported on a short peduncle, with a linear, acute, 

 reflexed bractea at the base. The calyx is monophyllous, 

 glabrous, five-parted, with ovate oblong, acute, erect segments. 

 The corolla is large, pale yellow, with an ample ventricose tube, 

 terminating at the base in a conical-subulate spur ; the limb is 

 bilabiate, ringent, the upper lip erect, bifid, with the segments 

 rounded, reflexed at the margin ; the lower lip three-lobed, the 

 sjde lobes spreading, somewhat concave, the middle lobe much 

 smaller, nearly round ; the palate fornicate, prominent, saffron 

 coloured, clothed with silky hairs. The four stamens are fur- 

 nished with whitish subulate filaments, the two longer attached 

 to the lower lip, clavate and villous at the base ; anthers oval, 

 yellow, connivent by their parietes. The germen is ovate, sub- 

 compressed, glabrous, with a subulate style as long as the 

 shorter stamens, terminated by a capitate truncated stigma. 

 The fruit is an ovate-oblong, emarginate two-celled capsule 

 opening at the end, subtended by the persistent calyx. The 

 seeds are numerous, orbicular, brownish black. Plate 44, fig. 

 4 ; (a) entire flower viewed sidewise ; (b) calyx ; (c) longitudi- 

 nal section of the corolla, shewing the stamens and pistil ; (d) 

 pistil ; (e) capsule ; (/) transverse section of the same. 



This plant is common on dry banks, the borders of corn 

 fields, and in hedges, flowering from July to September. 



The generic name is derived from Linum, flax, the leaves of 

 the species here described resembling those of flax. In con- 

 sequence of this similarity, and from a fancied resemblance be- 

 tween the mouth of the flower and that of the toad, it has also 

 received its common name. It is sometimes called, provincially, 

 Butter and Eggs. 



Some other species of Linaria, formerly included in the 

 genus Antirrhinum, are natives of Britain, and there are nu- 

 merous foreign kinds. The three-leaved Toad-flax (Z. triphylla) 

 is a common border annual. The unexpanded flowers of L. 



