Th BRITISH HERBAL, 
“109 
It is of a pale bluifh green, fometimes fimple, 
and frequently divided into fevetal branches. 
The leaves are nurherous, and ftand irregu- 
larly: they are long, narrow, undivided at the 
edges, and without footftalks. 
Their colour is a pale bluifii green, 
The flowers are large, numerous, and beauti- 
ful: they ftand ina kind of fpikes at the tops of 
the ftalks, and are in general of a very pale and 
very beautiful yellow, with a deeper, or orange 
yellow in fome parts. 
The feed-veffel is large and round: the feeds 
are {mall and brown. 
It is common on dry banks, and flowers in 
June. \ 
C. Bauhine calls it Linaria vulgaris lutea flore 
majore. Others, Linaria vulgaris. 
Our common people, from the mixture of a 
very pale and deep yellow, call it Butter and eggs. 
2. Blue, fweet Toadflax. 
Linaria caeritlea odorata. 
The root is long, flender, hard, whitifh, and 
furnifhed with many fibres. 
The ftalks are numerous, and a foot and half 
high: they are round, flender, upright, and 
rarely divided into branches. 
The leaves are very numerous, and they ftand 
thick and clofe upon the ftalk: they are of a 
pale green, very narrow, and have no foot- 
ftalks. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the ftalks, and 
are of a beautiful pale blue, and ftriated. 
The feed-veffels are large and rounded. 
It is found in Cornwal and Devonhhire; and 
flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Linaria capillaceo folio ereéta, 
Slore odoro. J. Bauhine, Linaria odorata mons 
peffulana. 
3. Short-leaved Toadflax. 
Linaria foliis brevibus. 
The root is long, flender, woody, and divided, 
and is hung with a few fibres. 
The firft leaves rife in a fmall tuft, and are 
- oblong, fomewhat broad, and of a. pale green: 
they have no footftalks, and when the ftalk rifes 
they quickly fade away. 
The ftalk is round, upright, a foot and half 
high, feldom branched, though ufually there rife 
afew fhoots from the bofoms of the leaves near 
the top. 
The leaves are numerous, and of the. fhape of 
thofe of the common toadflax, but fhorter: they 
have no footftalks : their colour is a pale green: 
they are undivided at the edges, fharp-pointed, 
and of a flefhy fubftance. 
The flowers ftand in a kind of fpikes at the 
top of the ftalks and branches, and they are of 
a beautiful pale blue. 
The feed-veffels are large, and the feeds are 
fmall and brown. 4 
It is found in Surry and fome of the adjacent 
sounties, in cornfields, and barren paftures, and 
on walls: it flowers in July. 
Robinus calls it Linaria ofjris flore cinericeo ; 
but the flower is properly of a pale blue, not 
ath-coloured. 
N° a, 
4. Small; red Toadflax, 
Linaria parva rubefcens, 
The toot is fmall; woody; divided, and 
fpreading. ; 
‘ The ftalks aré numerous, weak; routid; up- 
right, and very much branched: they are eight 
inches high, and of a pale green, ; 
The leaves are numerous, and ftand irregu: 
larly: they are narrow, long, and of a -dutky 
| green. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the ftalka, 
and feparately on other parts of the plant, rifing 
from the bofoms of the leaves: they are {mall, 
and of a pale red. 
The feed-veffel is round, and the feeds até 
fmall. ; 
It is common in our cornfields, and flowers in 
June. 
Ray calls it Linaria antirrbinum difa diftin= 
guifhing it from the axtirrbinums, with whieh 
others had joined it, from the fhape and ftru€turé 
of the flower and feed-veffél. C. Bauhine calls it 
Antirrhinum arvenfe minus. Others, Antirrbinum 
arvenfe minimum : this is the more improper, as 
we have wild alfo in our cornfields a fpecies of 
fnapdragon, properly fo called. 
The common toadflax is a plant pofiefled of 
virtues too much neglected. It has its ufes both 
inwardly and outwardly, and in both kinds very 
worthy of notice. i 
The whole frefh herb boiled in ale is 4 coun- — 
try purge; it operates brifkly, and alfo promotes 
urine. 
The frefh herb bruifed, with fome white wine» 
is a ftronger purge, and fometimes works alfo by 
vomit: ‘ 
An infufion of the whole herb, root and all, 
juft before it gets into lower, works very power- 
fully by urine. 
In either of thefe forms it is excellent againft 
dropfies: in the beginning of that difeafe the in- 
fufion is the beft method of giving it; when it 
is more advanced the country decoétion in ale is. 
proper; and when the difeafe is violent, and the 
conftitution can bear it, the expreffed juice, in the 
manner we have named, with white wine, is beft 
of all. ; 
The juice of the leaves is excellent againft in- 
flammations of the eyes. We owe this to Tra- 
gus, who reports it as confirmed from his own 
long experience; and trials fince made fhew it was 
true. . 
The juice is alfo excellent for cleanfing old 
ulcers. 
A decoétion, or ftrong infufion of the tops, 
taken morning and evening, cures the jaundice. 
An ointment or pultice, made with the leaves 
of common toadflax, is excellent in the piles. 
The feveral other {pecies of toadflax, Englifh 
and foreign, poffefs the fame virtues, though 
moft of them in a leffer degree. The antirrbina 
of fome fpecies have very different qualities, a 
{ufficient reafon why they fhould be kept as na- 
ture has difpofed them, diftin&, and under fe~ 
parate names. 
Ff DIVE 
