Page:Wayside and Woodland Blossoms.djvu/79

Rh which flowers from July to September. This has an erect stem, with leaves approaching more to heart-shape, the teeth sharper; both stem and leaves downy and whitish. Flowers white, marked with rose-colour. The name Nepeta is the classical Latin one, and is said to have been given because the plant was common round the town of Nepet in Tuscany.

The Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (Linaria cymbalaria) will be found forming a beautiful tapestry on ruins and old walls. It is a Continental species, and those found naturalized here are believed to be the descendants of greenhouse escapes. The stems are very long and slender; the leaves lobed like certain forms of Ivy, often purple beneath, dark green above. The calyx is five-parted, and the corolla is like that of the familiar Snapdragon of our gardens. The two lips are so formed that they close the mouth of the corolla, which is hence said to be personate or masked; the tube is spurred, in which it differs from Snapdragon. When the seed-capsule is nearly ripe it turns about on its stalk and seeks a cranny in the wall, where it can disperse its seeds. Flowers July to September. The name Linaria is derived from the Latin Linum, from the resemblance of the leaves of the common Toad-flax (see page ) to those of the Flax (see page ).

This neat member of a charming family is by no means a common plant ; in fact, northward of South Wales and Norfolk it is unknown. Southward it may be found in hedges and waste places, flowering in June and July. The stems are slight, and greatly swollen at the joints. The leaf-stalks are long, and the leaves, though their general outline is kidney-shaped, are deeply cut into about seven lobes, which are in turn lobed or toothed. Owing to the close general resemblance of this species to its immediate congeners some rather minute differences