WOOD BETONY 



spicuous, but the upper leaves upon the floral stem look 

 as if their sides and tips were dipped into a scarlet 

 tincture. The plant is accused of parasitic tendencies, 

 but a colony covering a barren, sandy hillside appar- 

 ently has very little opportunity for evil-doing. 



"^WOOD BETONY. LOUSEWORT 



Pediculdris Canadensis 



Pediculdris, relating to lice; long supposed to breed 

 lice in sheep that feed on the plant. 



Perennial. Found in sprawling clusters on sandy knolls 

 in moist woods, on dry roadside banks. Nova Scotia to 

 Manitoba, south to Florida and Mississippi, west to 

 Colorado. Common in northern Ohio. April, May. 



Flowering sterns. — Several, that spring from the centre 

 of a tuft of clustered, sprawling leaves, stout, hairy, spar- 

 ingly leafy, from six to eighteen inches high. 



Leaves. — Scattered on the stem, oblong-lanceolate, 

 pinnately parted into obtuse, deeply cut, or dentate lobes. 



Flowers. — Two-lipped, greenish yellow and purplish red, 

 in a thick, tousled, leafy terminal spike. 



Calyx. — Tubular, obhque, split in front; two or three 

 minute scallops on upper side. 



Corolla. — Two-lipped; upper lip arched, concave, with 

 two tiny teeth at the apex, between which extends the 

 slender pistil; the lower lip three-lobed. 



Stamens. — Four, grouped beneath the arch of the upper 

 lip; filaments hair-like; anthers large. 



Pistil. — One; style long, slender, protruding from the 

 upper lip. 



Capsule. — Many-seeded. 



Pollinated by bumblebees. Nectar-bearing. 



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