860 LINARIA. [CLASS XIV. ORDER II. 



apex with entire or toothed valves. — Named from Linum, flax ; 

 so called from the resemblance of some of the species to flax. 

 * Stems prostrate ; leaves broad, dilated. 



1. L. Cymbala'ria, Mill. (Fig. 994.) Ivy-leaved Toadflax. Leaves 

 roundish, heart-shaped, five lobed, petiolated, smooth; stem prostrate. 



Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 238. — Lindley, Synopsis, 

 p. 191. — Antirrhinum Cymhalaria, Linn, — English Botany, t. 502. — 

 English Flora, vol. iii, p. 131. 



Root fibrous. Stems round, smooth, prostrate, trailing, branched 

 and leafy. Leaves alternate, with flat footstalks, smooth, somewhat 

 fleshy, roundish, heart-shaped at the base, five lobed, a smooth shining 

 deep green above, paler or somewhat purplish beneath. Inflo- 

 rescence solitary axillary flowers, with round long slender spreading 

 stalks. Calyx with five lanceolate segments, shorter than the tube of 

 the corolla, which is cylindrical, pale purple, with a short pointed spur 

 at the base on the under side, the limb two lipped, the upper one of 

 two oblong obtuse lobes, purple, with deeper coloured veins, the lower 

 reflexed, of three obtuse lobes, the palate yellow, swollen into two 

 obtusely conical protuberances, downy within. Stamens inclosed, and 

 between the two upper is a fifth abortive one, the filaments linear. 

 Style short. Capsule sub-globose, bursting irregularly at the top. 

 Seeds not very numerous, small, black, wrinkled. 



Habitat. — Crevices of old walls and rocks; not uncommon, but 

 escaped from the garden, and naturalized. 



Perennial ; flowering during the summer months. 



The long festoons which are formed by the much branched slender 

 stems of this pretty graceful plant are highly ornamental to old walls, 

 rocks, and ruins, upon which it fixes itself, and seems to revel in the 

 conquest which time has gained o'er the proudest monuments of man ; 

 and though 



" High on the rock its wild flowers shine. 

 In beauty bathed and joy divine ; 

 In their dark nooks to them are given 

 The sunshine and the dews of heaven." JVilson. 



Few plants are better suited for ornamental rock work than this ; its 

 leaves are almost constantly green, and its beautiful delicate little 

 flowers are blooming almost all the year round in a sheltered situation. 

 The leaves have a warm bitterish flavour, and have been recommended 

 as an antiscorbutic, and it is related by Hamilton that in India it is 

 given mixed with sugar in cases of diabetes, and it is reported with 

 good efi'ect. A remedy so simple, in the long progress of this distress- 

 ing disease over which remedial measures at present known seem to 

 have little or no efi'ect, is worth the trial. 



2, L. spu'ria, Mill. (Fig. 995.) Round-leaved Toad-flax. Leaves 

 roundish ovate, entire, downy, mostly alternate ; stems prostrate ; 

 peduncles downy; spur of the flower subulate, curved. 



