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A N T I R R H I N U M majus.
Great Snapdragon.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-leaved. Cor. with a prominence
at its bafe pointing downwards and bearing honey. Capfule two-celled.
Spec. Char. Corolla not elongated into a fpur. Flowers
fpiked. Capfules roundifh.
Syn. FI.Antirrhinum An.With.majus. Bot. Linn.Arr S p6.5 P0.I . HCuadnft..
274. .8R5e9l.h . 243* ______________
G a th e r e d oil walls at Greenwich, where, as in other
places in Kent, and about many of the older towns in the fouth
and eaft parts of England, this magnificent fpeciesof Antirrhinum
may be found in abundance, flowering from the end of May to
the middle of July, or later. Ray has omitted this plant, and
Mr. Hudfon has marked it with an afterilk, both confidering it
as of foreign origin; an idea, which its being only occafionally
perennial with us, though now perfectly naturalized, feems to
juftify.
Root fibrous, producing a tuft of fhort fpreading leafy ftems.
Flowering ftems ere£t, 12 or 18 inches high, ftrong, leafy,
round, fmooth below, hairy and vifcid above, branched towards
the bottom, but terminating in a fimple denfe fpike of flowers,
which never appear till the fecond year. The pedicles are
ftiort, with a concave braftea at their bafe, and fometimes a pair
of narrow lanceolate bra&ese clofe to the calyx, which confifts of
five broad, concave, entire leaves, brown and vifcid on their out-
fide. The corolla is generally of a rofe-colour, fometimes
white, but always with a large yellow fpot on the protuberant
part of the under lip *, the gardens poflefs a deep crimfon variety
of great beauty, very ornamental to rock-work. The leaves
are deep green, fmooth, lanceolate, and entire, varying much
in breadth.
The corolla in moft fpecies of this genus is fo conftru&ed
that, when prefled laterally between the finger and thumb, it
gapes, doling itfelf again from elafticity when left; hence the
name Snapdragon.