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Butter-And-Eggs. Toadflax

Linaria Vulgaris. Figwort Family.

Stem.--Smooth; erect; one to three feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; linear or nearly so. Flowers.--Of two shades of yellow; growing in terminal racemes. Calyx.--Five-parted. Corolla.--Pale yellow tipped with orange; long-spurred; two-lipped; closed in the throat. Stamens.--Four. Pistil.--One. The bright blossoms of butter-and-eggs grow in full, close clusters which enliven the waste places along the roadside so commonly, that little attention is paid to these beautiful and conspicuous flowers. They would be considered a "pest" if they did not display great discrimination in their choice of locality, generally selecting otherwise useless pieces of ground. The common name of butter-and-eggs is unusually appropriate, for the two shades of yellow match perfectly their namesakes. Like nearly all our common weeds, this plant has been utilized in various ways by the country people. It yielded what was considered at one time a valuable skin lotion, while its juice mingled with milk constitutes a fly-poison. Its generic name, Linaria, and its English title, toadflax, arose from a fancied resemblance between its leaves and those of the flax.