Linaria.] scrophulaeiace^. 351 



late, mostly deflexed or recurved ; a few of the lower stem-leaves occasionally 

 varying to obovale-oblong or spathulate. Peduncles axillary, solitary, single- 

 flowered, when in fruit much (twice or thrice) longer than the calyx, erecto-patent 

 or diverging. Bracts none. Flowers small and inconspicuous, remote, forming 

 a sort of loose spike. Calyx somewhat enlarged after flowering, its segments 

 leaf-like, linear-spathulate, subacute, single-ribbed, the 3 superior ones nearly 

 equal, ascending, with erect or recurved tips ; the 2 inferior rather shorter than 

 the rest, very wide asunder, the tips spreading. Corolla not much exceeding the 

 calyx, scarcely 3 lines in length, glandulosely hairy except the spur, pale purple, 

 or violet ; upper lip flat, bifid, with a wide, shallow, acute notch between its 

 rounded perfectly horizontal lobes, its posterior margin produced laterally into 2 

 corners or angles, giving the entire lip a square figure ; lower lip yellowish white, 

 longer than the upper, deeply cleft anteriorly into 3 oblong, very obtuse and entire 

 segments separated by obtuse sinuses ; palate downy, yellowish or white, some- 

 times faintly spotted with purple, narrow, and hence scarcely closing the mouth, 

 behind which are two large spots of brownish purple ; spur very short and blunt, 

 but variable in length, usually not half that of the corolla, subcylindrical or subco- 

 nical, slightly curved, purplish and glabrous, deflexed ; throat villous within, the 

 hairs tawny. Stamens not cohering ; filaments white, slightly bearded at the base 

 only with a few glandulose hairs ; anthers black ; pollen white. Style subcylin- 

 drical, straight, purplish and glabrous above, white and slightly glandulose-pilose 

 below, the apex a little dilated ; stigma a glandulose viscid disk, formed by the 

 obliquely truncate point of the style. Ovarium ovoid, very hispido-glandulose, 

 oblique, with a tumid green annular gland at its base. Capsules rather shorter 

 than the sepals, hairy, whitish, rugose, ovoid-oblong, very oblique at the base, 

 gibbous in front, opening at the very obtuse summit hy 2 large nearly semicircu- 

 lar apertures, mostly split at the margin into several unequal valvate segments. 

 Seeds very numerous, deep brown, ovoid-oblong, rounded at both ends, neither 

 compressed nor margined, traversed longitudinally by their prominent undulate 

 and somewhat crenate ridges, that anastomose occasionally. 



f\ Stems filiform, trailing or prostrate. Leaves broad-stalked. Flowers solitary, 

 axillary, on long peduncles. 



* 4. L. Cymbalaria, Mill. Ivy-leaved Toadflax. Vect. Roving 

 Jenny. Roving Sailor. " Leaves cordate 5-lobed palmate-nerved 

 alternate glabrous, stems trailing." — Br. Fl. p. 300. ' E. B. vii. t. 

 502. Benth. in DC. Prod. x. p. 266. Curt. Fl. Lond. i. fasc. 1. 



Pretty frequent on walls, ruins, stone fences and hedgebanks near houses ; com- 

 pletely naturalized. Fl. April — November. If.. 



E. Med. — On the old walls of Quarr abbey, but very sparingly. Old walls 

 about Knighton manor, abundantly. On a low wall at Binstead parsonage. 

 Abundant on the stone walls at Ventnor. Stone fences at St. Lawrence, and 

 about Sir Willoughby Gordon's, by Old part, plentifully. It has established itself 

 on a stony declivity at Bank-end, just beyond the farm, from which it is no doubt 

 an escape, though the situation be an apparently natural one. 



W. Med. — On walls at Shorwell. 



Entire plant perfectly smooth and glabrous. Root slender, whitish and fibrous. 

 Stems numerous, slender, terete, very brittle and succulent, with a tough central 

 chord, pale green or purplish, alternately branched, the branches prostrate, and 

 clinging by occasional rooting fibres to ihe surface of old walls, which the plant 

 often covers, in the manner of Ivy, with a dense tapestry of entangled herbage ; 

 various in length, from a span or under to 2 or 3 feet when pendulous. Leaves 

 distant, alternate or partly opposite, various in size, deep rich green above, 



Linaria purpurea, an Italian species, is partially naturalized on walls and about 

 gardens at Bonchurch, being a plant very common in cultivation here. 



