310 PLANTS GROWING IN WASTE SOIL, 
downy and sometimes smooth ; but with enough clearly defined 
traits to make it always recognisable. 
In olden times its leaves were made into a popular beverage, 
something like tea, and for which it is said to have been a very 
good and wholesome substitute, 
V. serpyllifolia, thyme-leaved speedwell, is another variety 
that is fond of the roadsides. The corolla is very pale, striped 
with a darker blue, and the leaves are more rounded in outline 
than those of V. officinalis. 
BUTTER=AND-EGGS. YELLOW TOAD-FLAX. 
Linarta Lindrza. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
figwort. Orange, and yellow, Pleasant. General. Summer. 
flowers: showy; growing closely in a terminal raceme. Calyx : five- 
parted. Coro//a: two-lipped, closed in the throat; extending backward into 
a long, pointed spur; within hairy. The hairs and tip of the corolla of a 
deeper orange shade of yellow. Stamens: four, in pairs of unequal length. 
Pistid: one. Leaves: alternate; linear; grass-like. Sf : erect ; branching ; 
smooth, 
Our very familiarity with these conspicuous and beautiful 
flowers inclines us to pay little heed to them;. although they 
find their way into children’s hands almost more than any other 
of our wayside flora. If we had to seek them through some 
quaking bog with only a vague hope of finding them we should 
probably prize them in some such way as we do the yellow 
orchis.- But they give us no trouble. They galivant along the 
roadsides and we may admire them, or pass them by, just as we 
choose. No doubt the political economist would remind us in 
this connection that things are only valuable that are limited 
in supply. 
BLUE, OR WILD TOAD-=FLAX. 
Linarta Canadénsis. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Figwort, Pale blue, or purple. Scentless. General, J uly-October. 
Flowers : growing in a terminal raceme. Ca/yx ;: five-parted. Corolla; two 
lipped, closed in the throat, extending backward into a long pointed spur. 

