Snapdragon quotes by topic: Snap-dragon game, Bees and snapdragons, Magic and snapdragons, Flowers and snapdragons, Weeds and snapdragons, Snapdragons features, Gardening and snapdragons, Name and snapdragons, Pinch and snapdragons, Attitude to snapdragons, Walls and snapdragons, Mistletoe and snapdragons, Old-fashioned and snapdragons, etc.
Snap-dragon game
A play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them. (Samuel Johnson)
It was Christmas Eve. Games had been played. The old had vied with the young at snatching raisins from the burning snapdragon. (Katherine Rickford)
But the heat—oh, so hot it is. If it is half as hot with you, you must be calling on the name of St. Lawrence by this time, and require no ‘turning.’ I should not like to travel under such a sun. It would be too like playing at snapdragon. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
In the glare, we could perceive two boats, full of men. Any one who has ever played at snapdragon, can imagine the unearthly appearance of objects when seen by this species of firework. (Michael Scott)
The tea proceeded pleasantly, notwithstanding that the cake, being a little burnt, tasted on the outside like the latter plums in snapdragon. (Thomas Hardy)
Bees and snapdragons
Such a day made glad the heart. All the flags of July were waving; the sun and the poppies flaming; white butterflies spiring up and twining, and the bees busy on the snapdragons. (John Galsworthy)
I contemplated for a long time this morning the fight of a bumblebee against a snapdragonflower which did not want to give up its hony. (André Gide)
Thus the Antirrhinum, or snapdragon, is completely closed, and only a somewhat powerful insect can force its way in. The flower is in fact a strong-box, of which the humble-bee only has the key. (John Lubbock)
Take a closer look at the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus). Stamens and pistils are hidden in the depths of the “pharynx”, covered with petals. The lower petals create a landing platform and at the same time a kind of scales. If the insect is very small, then it will not reach the highly located stamens and stigmas. Such an insect has nothing to do inside the flower; there is no need to feed it nectar. The lower petals “weigh” the insect, and if it is underweight, the “throat” does not open. But then a “suitable candidate” arrived (some insect). It is large enough in diameter to reach the anthers and stigmas suspended high inside the corolla. Under the weight of the insect, the “landing platform” bends down, and the insect gains access to the nectar. (Vladimir Chub)
Magic and snapdragons
The snapdragon, which in years gone by was much cultivated for its showy blossoms, was said to have a supernatural influence, and amongst other qualities to possess the power of destroying charms. (T. F. Thiselton-Dyer)
The snapdragon and the herb-betony had the reputation of averting the most subtle forms of witchcraft, and dill and flax were worn as talismans against sorcery. (T. F. Thiselton-Dyer)
The magic that turns a blossom of the large, cultivated snapdragon into a little lady’s head, upon which rests a dainty, ruffled sunbonnet, or into a ferocious-looking lion’s head, is the magic of pen and ink, not of rhyme. (Lina Beard, Adelia B. Beard)
I really believe in fairy tales,” said Madame de Rose, smiling, and, indeed, beyond her prudence, her heart believed in them.
“Why is it impossible,” she continued jokingly, “for dwarfs in long caps to come at night to drink dew from the bitter cup of snapdragons?.. (Anna de Noailles)
Flowers and snapdragons
The Snapdragon and the almost transparent Balsam are more timorous and awkward and fearfully press their flowers against their stalks. (Maurice Maeterlinck)
Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening! (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Down in the garden she saw marigolds and zinnias, late blooming pansies, mignonette, snapdragon and aster and heliotrope, larkspur, mourning bride, and citronalis. (Mary Johnston)
Too quick despairer, wherefore wilt thou go?
Soon will the high Midsummer pomps come on,
Soon will the musk carnations break and swell,
Soon shall we have gold-dusted snapdragon,
Sweet-William with his homely cottage-smell,
And stocks in fragrant blow; (Matthew Arnold)
Weeds and snapdragons
“I thought snapdragons were just common weeds,” commented James.
“They’ve been improved, too, and now they are large and very handsome and of various heights.” (Mabell S.C. Smith)
It came to our country as a garden flower. It has spread and spread, partly by its seeds and partly by its root stalks, which are creeping ones, and now it is a perennial weed. For since it has become a nuisance it must be classed as a weed. As it spreads along it tends to force out other plants. (Ellen Eddy Shaw)
The honeysuckle, bereft of its trellis, wandered helplessly over the ground, and amid a rank growth of weeds sprang a host of yellow snapdragons. (Eliza Calvert Hall)
The grass by the roadside was gay with brilliant crimson pinks, yellow snapdragons and dandelions, and violet daisies. (Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Joseph Pennell)
Snapdragons features
And in one locality is the lesser snapdragon, which always commands attention, partly for its uncommonness, and partly as a scion of the romantic race of Antirrhinum, which has a fascination not for children only, but for all lovers of the quaint. (Henry S. Salt)
The nearest relative to the garden snapdragon is the climbing snapdragon (Maurandia antirrhiniflora). (Eula Whitehouse)
Some snapdragons have a reputation. (Manfred Hinrich)
Dictionaries speak of a tree called the snapdragon. It must be a very fruitful species. (Paul-Jean Toulet)
Gardening and snapdragons
Any light soil, well enriched with rotted manure, will grow Snapdragons to perfection. (C. E. Hunn, L. H. Bailey)
Snapdragons are easily raised from seed, or propagated by cuttings. (Frederick Frye Rockwell)
In the courtyard there is a border of hollyhocks and snapdragon and asters. (Edmund Candler)
Snapdragon, wallflower, pansies, and hollyhocks are very easily grown from seed. They can be sown in June (wallflowers are best sown in April) in boxes, and thinned out and transplanted to permanent places as soon as they are large enough. They will blossom the following year. (Dorothy Canfield Fisher)
Name and snapdragons
The very name of the snapdragon is a proof of its hold upon the imagination: what mediæval romance and unfailing charm for children—and for adults—is conveyed in the word! The plant is at its best when clad in royal hue of purple; the white robe also has its glory; but the intermediate forms, striped and mottled, that are so fancied in gardens, are degenerates from a noble type. Seen on the walls of some ancient ruin, the snapdragon is a wonder and a delight. (Henry S. Salt)
The most rational, and also the most graceful manner of naming flowers is the descriptive; and here, luckily, there are a number of titles, English or Latin, with which no fault can be found. Spearwort, mouse-tail, arrow-head, bird’s-foot, colt’s-foot, blue-bell, bindweed, crane’s-bill, snapdragon, shepherd’s purse, skull-cap, monk’s-hood, ox-tongue—these are but a few of the well-bestowed names. (Henry S. Salt)
Pinch and snapdragons
But great as was the joy of tiny pebbles and of playmate Dollie, far greater was the happiness inspired by the flowers, with which she struck up friendships that were to last to her life’s end. There was the snapdragon, which opened and shut its mouth as she chose to pinch it. (Marion Harry Spielmann, George Somes Layard)
The blossoms of the cultivated snapdragon are very much larger than those of its wild cousin, called by some people butter-and-eggs, but the cultivated flowers grow on a stalk in the same way as the wild ones. You would hardly recognize the cultivated flowers as snapdragons because of their size and wonderful colors. A sure test is to pinch one; if it opens its mouth it is a real snapdragon; if it doesn’t it is not. (Lina Beard, Adelia B. Beard)
Attitude to snapdragons
Snapdragons were a beloved flower—companions of my childhood in our home garden, but they have been neglected a bit by nearly every one of late years. Plant a clump of the clear yellow and one of pure white Snapdragons, and see how beautiful they are in the garden, and how fresh they keep when cut. (Alice Morse Earle)
I even confess to a certain liking for the podgy little dwarf Snapdragons; they are ungraceful little dumpy things, but they happen to have come in some tender colourings of pale yellow and pale pink, that give them a kind of absurd prettiness, and a certain garden-value. (Gertrude Jekyll)
Walls and snapdragons
In the cracks of our walls we have the wallflower which is said to symbolize fidelity, the snapdragon which, because of its protruding lip, is reputed to be presumptuous. (Maurice Bedel)
Some which were left entirely to their own way, like the snapdragons, seemed to thrive best of all. These thrust themselves into the crevices of the old wall, waved in triumph along the top of it, and had sown themselves industriously at the sides of the garden paths, reaching out their velvety, glowing mouths from the most unexpected places, for the dusty-legged humble bees to dive into. (Amy Walton)
Mistletoe and snapdragons
Like the old-fashioned folk they were, they had a snapdragon and plenty of mistletoe and plenty of the usual jokes about both. (Anthony Hope)
I had looked forward to spending Christmas with some people in Suffolk, and every one in London assured me that at their house there would be the kind of a Christmas house party you hear about but see only in the illustrated Christmas numbers. They promised mistletoe, snapdragon, and Sir Roger de Coverley. (Richard Harding Davis)
Old-fashioned and snapdragons
There were some plants growing on the coping—snapdragon and valerian—which gave it a look of age and settled use. The carriage drove in under the arch, and a small courtyard appeared. (Arthur Christopher Benson)
In summer the place was gay with cottage flowers, for Miss Berengaria, being old-fashioned herself, would have no new-fangled importations. The flowers she loved were snapdragon, sweet-william, heart’s-ease, and all those homely blossoms such as John Bunyan loved. (Fergus Hume)
Quaintness and snapdragons
Quaintness, though it may exist apart from beauty, is often associated with it, and, unlike grotesqueness, has a pleasurable interest for the spectator. In flowers it is usually suggested by some abnormality of shape, as in the snapdragon. (Henry S. Salt)
In regular flowers, like the lilies, the colouration is equal. In irregular flowers, like the snapdragon and foxglove, the decoration is irregular. (Alfred Tylor)
Women and snapdragons
In her sheer white frock, through which gleamed her neck and arms, her hands full of pink and white snapdragon, she was worth consideration. (Grace S. Richmond)
Lady Diana Templeton smiled like a mauve-pink snapdragon, and Mrs Monnerie led me on. (Walter de la Mare)
Sounds and snapdragons
Do you know I caught him outside growling at the snapdragons? (Alice Sebold)
At a touch, he explodes like a snapdragon into loud purrs. (Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth)
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