353 scROPHULAEiACE^. [Linavia. 



whitish and often tinged with purple heneath, somewhat fleshy and shining, 

 obscurely and palmately 5-ribbed, the lower and larger cordato-rotundate or sub- 

 reniform, being mostly a little wider than long, 5- or obscurely 7-lobed, the lobes 

 shallow, rounded, entire and obtuse, tipped with a minute point, the middle lobe 

 broadest ; upper and smaller leaves similar in form, but in general more deeply 

 and acutely (sometimes but 3) lobed, much like those of Ivy in miniature. Pe- 

 tioles variable in length. Peduncles solitary, axillary, single-flowered, longer than 

 the leaves and partly lengthened out in fruit. Calyx extremely small, about a 

 line in length, purplish green, the segments elliptic-lanceolate, concave, pointed 

 and fleshy. Corolla scarcely half an iuch long including the spur, dilute pur- 

 plish blue or violet ; upper lip ascending, recurved, deeply bifid, the lobes oblong, 

 rounded, entire or retuse, flat, with 2 or 3 purple streaks ; lower lip paler, not stri- 

 ated, deeply 3-cleft, the lobes roundish oblong, entire, plane, spreading, the mid- 

 dle one rather the longest and narrowest; palate very prominent, deeply 2-lobed, 

 closing the mouth, lobes with a yellow spot anteriorly, which is sometimes obso- 

 lete; throat darker violet striated with deep purple, clothed inside at bottom with 

 a double broad line of fulvous hairs running backwards from each lobe of the 

 palate almost to the base of the very short, conical, nearly straight and obtuse 

 spur. Stamens 4, with a distinct rudimentaiy fifth filament and anther ; filaments 

 with a few hairs at the base only ; anthers cream-coloured ; pollen white. Style 

 cylindrical, a little thickened upwards to its round, obtuse, faintly 2-lobed and 

 somewhat recurved apex. 



An idea seems generally to prevail that the present species of Linaria is of 

 comparatively recent introduction into Britain from Italy, where it is said to he 

 truly indigenous. It certainly has increased in frequency during the last half- 

 century, which may be accounted for by the more difl'used taste for gardening 

 amongst all ranks, and the facility with which the species disseminates itself 

 where it is once planted. The author of these remarks remembers to have often 

 heard that a near relative of his own, who had a great love for botanical pursuits, 

 received as a present worth accepting in those days a quantity of Cymhalaria from 

 the late Sir Joseph Banks, who was in the habit of occasionally sending her what- 

 ever was curious or uncommon in the vegetable tribe. 



Gerarde gives a good figure of the Cymhalaria italica, as he calls it, and states 

 that it " grows wilde upon walls in Italic, but in gardens with us," and does not 

 speak of it as rare in his time. Parkinson, a contemporary of Gerarde, mentions 

 it as " growing naturally in divers places of our land, although formerly it hath 

 not beetle knowne to bee but in gardens and other places that are shadie upon the 

 ground." 



This pretty species has doubtless obtained its Tsle-of-Wight denomination from 

 its creeping abroad and extending itself far and wide with such facility. It has 

 acquired in America the name of Kenilworth Ivy, as I learn from my esteemed 

 friend, Dr. Darlington, of West Chester. 



5. L. Elatine, Desf. Sharp-pointed Fluellen or Toadflax. 

 Stems procumbent hairy, leaves broadly bastate acute mostly 

 alternate, the lowermost ovate opposite angulato-dentate, pedun- 

 cles glabrous, spur of the corolla subulate nearly straight. Sm. 

 E. Fl. iii. p. 132. Br. Fl. p. 800. Antirrhinum, L. : E. B. t. 

 692. 



In waste and cultivated ground, gardens, tillage-fields, on hedge- and ditch- 

 banks, sometimes in wet boggy places and woods ; abundant almost everywhere. 

 Fl. June — November. © . 



Root whitish, slender and tapei-ing, simple or branched at the bottom. Stem 

 much branched from the very base, or the branches themselves may be considered 

 as so many stems which are very slender, somewhat angular, solid, leafy, with 

 several straight, simple, short, distant and alternate ramifications, that diverge 

 from the main stem at nearly right angles, and are, like them, beset with copious 

 long, white, pellucid and jointed hairs intermixed with similar but shorter gland- 

 tipped ones : in an early stage of the plant the central stem is erect, but after- 



