48 FAMILIAR WILD ILOWERS. 



and slender, and when the plant is plucked or stirred by 

 the wind, we notice that the backs of the leaves are of a 

 reddish purple colour ; one of those in our illustration has 

 sufficiently turned over to enable us to perceive this. 

 The thick texture of the foliage causes its veining to be 

 only very slightly visible. From the axils of the leaves 

 spring the flower-stalks, about equal in length to the stalks 

 that bear the leaves. The flowers are small, and of a deli- 

 cate lilac, the palate being bright yellow, and each blossom, 

 as in the other toadflaxes, ends in a spur. 



Botanically, the plant is the Linaria Cymbalaria. The 

 generic name is derived from the Latin linum, flax, as the 

 leaves of many of the species are very flax-like in appear- 

 ance, though the foliage of the present species is very 

 dissimilar, Gerarde illustrates the plant, and makes it 

 springing from brickwork; but those who arranged his 

 blocks could not understand how a plant could grow down- 

 wards, so it stands erect. Parkinson, in 1640, calls it the 

 C. hederacea, and says "it groweth naturally in many 

 places of our land." His illustration, too, is turned the 

 wrong way uppermost. 



J 



