Flex 4 htmlText - <a> with <img> doesnt work

Question

Wow - I cant believe I actually have a question for Stack O'Flow! Been here many times but never needed to ask till now so thanks in advance!

I have a Flex 4 app that I want to embed htmlText with an anchor tag and an image. The image does not display no matter what I do. I have even tried textflow with no luck. The image simply will not appear as part of the tag. Here is the code:

var linkimage:Text = new Text;
var thisLink:String = "<a href='adobe.com' ><img src='FlexAssets/1.gif' /></a>";
linkimage.buttonMode = true;    
linkimage.htmlText = thisLink;
hg.addElement(linkimage);