310 Sua,]) Dragon. 



' Enter thy closet, shut the door,' 

 And heavenward let thy spirit soar; 

 Then softer dews than bathe the flower. 



On thee shall rest, 

 And beams which sun nor moon can pour 



Illume thy breast." 



Snap Dragon, 



The Antirrhinum Majus — Snap Dragon, belongs to the 

 class Didynamia, order Angiospermia. The generic name 

 is derived from two Greek words, meaning against the nose ; 

 supposed by some to arise from an unpleasant odor emitted 

 by one of the species ; and by others, to the resemblance of the 

 flower to the nose of a calf. Its characters are : — Calyx, five 

 leaved ; corolla, with the base produced downwards, and 

 nectariferous ; capsules, two celled. Specific characters : — 

 Corollas, tailless ; flowers in spikes ; calyxes, rounded. This is 

 an evergreen, ornamental perennial plant; bearing pink, 

 sometime purplish red, often white flowers. The leaves are 

 somewhat lance-shaped, and alternate, those of the branches 

 beino- opposite. The flower, observes Phillips, is made the 

 emblem of presumption from its monopetalous corolla forming 

 a mask, which resembles the face ol an animal ; and it has 

 from hence received various names, as Dog's Mouth, Lion's 

 Snap, Toad's Mouth, and Snap Dragon. On pressing the 

 sides of this flower it opens like a gaping mouth, the stigma 

 appearing to represent the tongue ; on removing the pressure 

 the lips of the corolla snap together, which has -occasioned the 

 last and most generally adopted name. It belongs to the fam- 

 ily of the Toad Flax, and is a flower that we cannot examine 

 without admiring how wonderfully it is adapted for the bleak 

 situation in which it grows naturally, as on the highest rocks or 

 out of the crevices of the most exposed cliffs or chinks of the 

 loftiest towers : in all of these situations its parts of fructifica- 

 tion are guarded against the tempest by the singularly shaped 

 corolla, which defies either wind or rain to enter it until im- 



