[f. TOAD sb. + FLAX, from the flax-like appearance of the foliage.] A popular name of the European plant Linaria vulgaris; hence extended as a generic name to other species of Linaria, as Ivy-leaved Toad-flax, L. Cymbalaria, Purple T., L. purpurea. Bastard Toad-flax, a name for Thesium linophyllum, and the American genus Comandra.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. liv. 79. Stanworte, wilde flaxe, or Tode flax, hath small, slender, blackish stalkes.
1630. Drayton, Muses’ Elysium, iii. Wks. (1748), 448/1. By toad-flax which your nose may taste, If you have a mind to cast.
1776. Lee, Bot., 353/1. Toad Flax, Antirrhinum.
1866. Treas. Bot., Toadflax. Bastard, Thesium linophyllum; also an American name for Comandra.
1868. J. T. Burgess, Eng. Wild Flowers, 211. The ‘butter-and-eggs’ of the country folk—the Yellow Toadflax.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, ii. 50. A crumbling bit of wall where the delicate ivy-leaved toad-flax hangs its light branches.
1893. Q. [Couch], Delect. Duchy, 21. A round stone wall, over which the toad-flax spread in a tangle.
