Linaria.] scrophulariace^. 349 



Debborn turnpike, Miss G. Kilderhee. Lane between Thorley-street and Bould- 

 ner, and I believe eleswhere in that parish, Mrs. Penfold!.'.' Near Yarmouth, 

 Hev. W. T. Bree in litt. Hedges near W. Cowes, in abundance, Mr. W. D. 

 Snooke /.'.' 



Root or rather rhizoma lonp, whitish, flexuose, woody, creeping considerably, 

 and often much branched under ground in a very singular manner. Stem 1 or 

 mure, sometimes very numerous, erect or ascending and even procumbent below, 

 from a foot or under to 2 or even 3 feel in height, quite glabrous, rounded and usu- 

 ally purplish at base, pale green and subangular above, fistulose, in the larger 

 plauts mostly simple below, variously and often copiously branched towards the 

 top mostly in a subcorymbose manner, very leafy , branches slender, straight, wiry, 

 and much more sparingly beset with leaves than the stem, so as to present rather 

 a naked aspect compared with the latter. Leaves very numerous and crowded at 

 the base of the stem, subverticillate and mostly disappearing early, those higher 

 up scattered or alternate, attenuated, more or less erect, the lower ones spreading 

 or diverging, larger and broader than the rest (2 inches or more in length), all 

 very naiTowly elongate-lanceolate, attenuated at both ends, extremely acute, of a 

 pale mostly very glaucous green, quite glabrous, slightly fleshy, with a single pro- 

 minent midrib beneath, and bearing each a short sterile or abortive branch in its 

 axil ; on the flowering branches the leaves are extremely narrow, much fewer and 

 more distant, irregularly scattered. Peduncles shorter than the flowers, stout, 

 purplish, erect, spreading or a little decurved, each subtended by a linear upright 

 Iract similarly coloured, as long as or rather longer than itself, or sometimes 

 shorter. Flowers in racemose clusters of no great length, terminating the stem 

 and branches, giving in the aggregate the appearance of a panicle or corymb. 

 Calyx purplish, somewhat fleshy, much shorter than the corolla ; sepals oblong or 

 elliptic-lanceolate, acute, equal, erect, not spreading, obsoletely single-nerved, the 

 midrib coloured at the back, sprinkled, chiefly on the inner surface, with white 

 pedicellate glands, their margins minutely cartilaginous and subserrate. Corolla 

 small, but varying a good deal in size, about 4 or 5 lines in length exclusive of the 

 spur, white suffused with purplish blue or lilac, beautifully striped with deeper 

 lines of the same colour but of variable intensity, usually most conspicuous in the 

 lobes of the upper lip in front, sometimes faintly marked or even obsolete, and 

 either straight or forming a network of anastomosing veins ,■ mouth closed by the 

 incumbent, deeply striated upper lip and very prominent whitish palate, which has 

 a spot, sometimes faint or obsolete, of golden yellow in tbe centre, the ridge vil- 

 lous with white or purplish subclavate bristles, enclosing a double line of fulvous 

 ones running backwards to the spur ; lower lip trifid, its segments equal, very 

 obtuse and rounded, reticulated with purple veins ; upper lip incumbent, its seg- 

 ments erect, ascending, very much rounded, diverging and vaulted at apex, the 

 tips mostly a little incurved ; spur flattened horizontally, straight, very variable in 

 length but always shorter than the corolla, sometimes extremely short, almost tri- 

 angular, rounded and even subtruncate at the end, at other times more tapering 

 and almost acute, traversed like the limb of the corolla with dark blue simple 

 lines. Stamens beset at their base with stiff pellucid bristles : filaments purplish. 

 Style cylindrical, glabrous, slightly enlarged upwards into the subglobular, papil- 

 loso-glandulose, yellowish or greenish stigma, which is somewhat curved forward. 

 Capsules very small, 2 — 2^- lines long, globose, splitting deeply and irregularly. 

 Sveds several, dull black and angular, deeply excavato-rugose. 



j3. This curious form, which T find occasionally on hedgebanks about W. Cowes, 

 where L. repens abounds, is unquestionably a hybrid between that species and L. 

 vulgaris, and not distinct in itself, being seen only where the two parents are 

 growing together, always very sparingly, and, though very difi'erent in aspect from 

 either taken apart, presenting no character that is not found in one or the other 

 progenitor'. In general habit this mule lAnaria is mostly allied to X. repens, of 

 which it possesses the scattered leaves and panicled inflorescence, together with the 

 striated upper lip, but the flowers are much larger, and both the spur and lower 

 lip are decidedly those of L. vulgaris ; the first, as in that plant, being length- 

 ened out, slightly curved and acute, not as in L. repens extremely short and 



