100 
BEAUTIFUL GARDEN FLOWERS. 
It thrives in ordinary soil and may be increased by 
division in spring, or from seeds. Somewhat similar 
in appearance is L. pycnostachya, which attains a 
height of 3 to 5 feet, and produces its pale purple 
flowers somewhat earlier in cylindrical spikes 12 to 18 
inches long. It is often grown as a biennial. (See 
p. 9.) 
LIN ARIA {Toadflax). — The common British Toad- 
flax (. L . vulgaris), grows 1 to 2 feet high, and pro- 
duces its deuse racemes of yellow flowers from July 
to October. It flourishes in almost any garden soil, 
and reproduces itself freely from seed. The variety 
called peloria is a pretty plant remarkable for having 
flowers resembling an extinguisher in form. The Ivy- 
leaved Toadflax or Kenilworth Ivy {L. Gymbalaria ) is 
practically a British weed, but looks charming on old 
walls, ruins, &c., upon which it seems to flourish in the 
drvest summer, and to produce its bluish-purple, lilac 
or whitish blossoms from May to September. Other 
Toadflaxes are alpina (bluish-violet), anticaria (white 
tinged lilac) ; dalmatica (3 to 5 feet high, with 
yellow flowers) ; purpurea (1 to 3 feet high, bluish- 
purple) ; and triornithophora (purple), all perennials, 
and as a rule easily raised from seeds. 
LINUM {Flax). — There are about 80 species of 
Flax known, most of them being herbaceous perennials. 
Among the yellow-flowered herbaceous species the 
finest are campanulatum and flavum, both 12 to 18 
inches high, and in blossom from June to August. 
The best-known blue or purple flowered Flaxes are 
alpinum , 6 inches ; austriacum, 1 to 2 feet ; narbonense, 
2 feet, perhaps the best of the blue-flowered kinds ; 
