ANTIRRHINUM MAJUS ; var. QUADRICOLOR, 
(Four-coloured-flovvered larger Snapdragon.) 
Class. Order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
SCR0PHULARIACE.E. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted, oblique, j curved at top, opening by three lobes, or an irregular 
Corolla personate ; tube ample, a little compressed ; foramen, under the top. Seeds oblong, truncate, minute, 
saccate at the base, and furnished with two parallel 
and interrupted lines of hairs inside beneath the 
palate; lobes of the upper lip erect, and often adpressed 
to the back by turns; lower lip spreading, having the 
middle lobes smaller than the lateral ones, with an 
ample bearded palate, which closes the throat. Stamens 
compressed, rather hairy at the base, having the sterile 
or fifth one very short or wanting. Stigma two-lobed. 
Capsule two-celled, woody, ovate or pear-formed, in- 
testa black, more or less wrinkled. 
Specific Character. — Stem thick, twisted. Branches 
erect, usually branched again. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 
attenuated at both ends, glabrous. Flowers racemose, ap- 
proximate. Calyx with the lobes broadly ovate, obtuse, 
clothed with glandular hairs. — Don's Gard. $ Botany. 
Var. Quadricolor. — A compact growing plant, with 
large and specious flowers, which have four distinct 
colours, beautifully merging into each other. 
From the common Snapdragon, which grows in such spontaneous abundance on 
old walls and buildings, to the richly- tinted kinds which decorate our flower- 
borders, the variations in the size, form, and colour of the blossoms are so numerous 
and interfused, that scarcely any race of plants contributes more to our pleasure, 
in an ornamental point of view. Notwithstanding, however, the profusion of 
sorts, and the almost interminable extent to which these may be multiplied, 
varieties are sometimes raised which are so marked in their characteristics as 
at once to become garden favourites, and to deserve the perpetuation of their 
peculiarities, 
Of this last description was the carnation-striped Snapdragon, figured in our 
Magazine a few years since, and known as A. majus caryophylloides. Similarly 
worthy of notice and culture is the plant of which we here give a representation. 
We have not succeeded in learning its origin ; but it has doubtless been derived 
from the intermixture of some of the best kinds by cross-fertilization, and has four 
separate colours, which, though indescribable, are readily discerned, and pass into 
each other at the edges in a very agreeable manner. We met with it first at 
Mr. Low's, Clapton, where the figure was taken, and where it flowered splendidly 
in the open border during the summer of 1842. It is conspicuous for a neat habit 
and foliage, and the inflorescence is exceedingly copious and good. 
