smaller, glabrous or commonly pilose (especially above); leaves ovate to ovate- 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 3-7 cm. long and about a third as wide, acute to 

 acutish or sometimes rounded at apex, narrowed to a short or elongate petiole, 

 entire or irregularly and remotely toothed; flowers in clusters of 3, sessile in the 

 axils of round and bractlike membranaceous floral leaves, imbricated in a close 

 spike 2-5 cm. long; bracts orbicular to broadly ovate, cuspidate, more or less 

 bristly-ciliate, green or often tinged with purple; calyx tubular-campanulate, about 

 half as long as the corolla, usually 10-nerved, naked in the throat, closed in fruit, 

 deeply 2-lipped, the upper lip truncate or with 3 short often ciliate teeth, the 

 lower lip cleft into 2 lanceolate often ciliate teeth; corolla 1-2 cm. long, violet 

 or rarely white, ascending, strongly 2-lipped, the upper lip arched, the lower lip 

 spreading and 3-lobed; stamens 4, didynamous, ascending under the upper lip, the 

 lower pair longer; filaments 2-toothed at apex with one of the teeth bearing the 

 anther, the other sterile; anther cells 2, divergent; ovary deeply 4-parted; cocci 

 ovoid, smooth. 



In low meadows, open woodlands, on seepy banks and gravel bars of streams, 

 ponds and ditches, along roadsides and pasturelands in the e. fourth of Tex., Okla. 

 (Craig, Osage, Mayes and Pittsburg cos.), N.M. (widespread) and Ariz. (Apache, 

 Navajo and Coconino, s. to Graham and Pima cos.), Apr.-June; widespread 

 throughout the N. Hemis. 



This species is represented in Texas by var. hispida Benth. with densely pubes- 

 cent stems and lower surface of leaves, and var. lanceolata (Bart.) Fern, with 

 narrow leaves. 



8. Physostegia Benth. False Dragon-head. Obedient-plant 



Smooth perennial herbs with upright simple or sparingly branched stems; leaves 

 sessile or the lower ones sometimes petiolate, linear to lanceolate or oblong, 

 mostly crenate or dentate; flowers usually large and showy, opposite, scattered or 

 crowded in simple or panicled terminal leafless spikes; calyx regular, obscurely 

 10-nerved, short-tubular to campanulate. more or less enlarged and slightly in- 

 flated in fruit; corolla funnelform, the tube exceeding the calyx, with a much- 

 inflated throat, varying from white to rose-color and commonly spotted or 

 variegated with purple, 2-lipped; upper corolla lip erect, nearly entire; lower 

 corolla lip 3-parted, spreading, small, its larger middle lobe broad and rounded, 

 notched; stamens 4, ascending beneath the upper corolla lip; cocci ovoid, smooth. 



About a dozen species that extend from Canada to northern Mexico. 



The vernacular name, "obedient-plant," is derived from the fact that when the 

 flowers are moved laterally in the inflorescence they remain where placed. All 

 of these species have value as ornamentals. 



1. Corolla rarely to 2 cm. long (2) 



1. Corolla more than 2 cm. long (3) 



2(1). Corolla less than 1 cm. long; calyx 3-4 mm. long 1. P. micrantha. 



2. Corolla more than 1 cm. long; calyx 5 mm. long or more 2. P. intermedia. 



3(1). Plant mostly slender and to about 1 m. high; leaves on lower half of stem 

 linear to linear-lanceolate, rarely more than 15 mm. wide (4) 



3. Plant large, coarse, commonly above 1 m. high; leaves on lower half of stem 



elliptic to oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 20 mm. wide or 

 more (5) 



4(3). Flowering from April to July 3. P. angustifolia. 



4. Flowering from August to November 4. P. praemorsa. 



5(3). Distribution in Val Verde County, Texas, commonly in flowing water; 

 rhizome large and elongate 5. P. Conellii. 



1422 



