254 CLASSIFICATION 



in each cell ; the placenta central, or the septum itself 

 is placentiferous throughout. Fruit capsular. This 

 is a large family of almost universal distribution, 

 including many Indian species, most of which are 

 insignificant weeds and a few are garden plants. 

 Common plants: Snapdragon {Antirrhinum majus), 

 a common "season" flower of our gardens, with deep- 

 red or yellow conspicuous flowers, personate corolla 

 saccate at the base, and 2-celIed capsule opening by 

 2 pores; Lindenbergia urticifolia, a diffuse annual 

 weed found in the rains, growing on old brick walls 

 and window-sills, with small axillary solitary yellow 

 flowers and personate corolla, having its mouth closed 

 by 2 gibbous projections or palate of the lower lip; 

 Linaria ramosissima (Plate VII, fig. a), a prostrate 

 herb with sagittate leaves and yellow flowers, with 

 a spurred and personate corolla; Scoparia dulcis, a 

 rigid perennial herb common in waste places, with 

 white tetramerous flowers, equal (not didynamous) 

 stamens, and the corolla throat densely bearded ; 

 Herpestis chamcedroides Linn., a small weed of garden 

 paths and moist waste places, with square stems and 

 white or whitish-yellow small flowers seen at the close 

 of the rains, and globose fruits dehiscing into 2 valves, 

 leaving the placentiferous septa free in the middle. 

 Centranthera hispida, an erect weed with purple 

 flowers; Sopubia tri/ida, with trifid filiform leaves 

 and yellow flowers. 



The Order is characterized by flowers rendered con- 

 spicuous by brightly-coloured corolla. Yellow and 

 red predominate. In many instances the flowers are 

 dichogamous. Those with a long corolla-tube open 

 or closed at the mouth by a palate are pollinated by 

 the stronger bees; those with short, campanulate, 

 widely-open corolla are chiefly visited by wasps. In 



