[*] Slender glabrous annual or biennial; leaves linear, entire and alternate (or smaller, oblong, and opposite on procumbent shoots), small blue flowers in a naked terminal raceme.
1. L. Canadénsis, Dumont. Flowering stems nearly simple (6–30´ high); leaves flat (1–2´´ wide); pedicels erect, not longer than the filiform curved spur of the corolla.—Sandy soil, common.
[*][*] Perennial, erect (1–3° high), glabrous, with narrow entire and alternate pale leaves, and yellow flowers in a terminal raceme.
L. vulgàris, Mill. (Ramsted. Butter and Eggs.) Leaves linear or nearly so, extremely numerous; raceme dense; corolla 1´ long or more, including the slender subulate spur; seeds winged.—Fields and roadsides, throughout our range. (Nat. from Eu.)
L. genistifòlia, Mill. Glaucous, paniculately branched; leaves lanceolate, acute; flowers smaller and more scattered; seeds wingless.—Sparingly naturalized near New York. (Nat. from Eu.)
[*][*][*] Annual, procumbent, much branched, with broad petioled veiny alternate leaves, and small purplish and yellow flowers from their axils.
L. Elatìne, Mill. Spreading over the ground, slender, hairy; leaves hastate or the lower ovate, much surpassed by the filiform peduncles; calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute; corolla 3–4´´ long, including the subulate spur.—Sandy banks and shores, Canada to N. C., rather rare. (Nat. from Eu.)
L. spùria, Mill. Like the preceding, but with roundish or cordate leaves and ovate or cordate calyx-lobes.—Occasionally occurs on ballast or waste grounds near cities. (Nat. from Eu.)
3. ANTIRRHÌNUM, Tourn. Snapdragon.
Corolla saccate at the base, the throat closed by the large bearded palate. Seeds oblong-truncate. Otherwise nearly as Linaria.—Corolla commonly showy, resembling the face of an animal or a mask; whence the name (from ἀντί, like, and ῥίν, a snout.) Fl. summer and autumn.