204 FIGWORT FAMILY 



Gerardia fasciculata. Flowers about 1 in. long. Flower- 

 stalks shorter than leaves. Stems 1-4 ft. tall, slightly rough. 

 Leaves opposite, narrow, rough, about 1 in. long, with smaller 

 leaves clustered in axils, upper leaves alternate. Chiefly in 

 low grounds. Blooming from spring to fall. Fla. to Va. 

 and Texas. 



Blue-Hearts (Genus Buchnera) 



Blue-hearts, whose small five-lobed flowers, of nearly 

 equal lobes, are as often white as colored, bloom the year 

 around in pinelands. The plants soon turn black when 

 pressed for the herbarium, a characteristic that is shown 

 by a number of other plants of this family. The flowers are 

 usually less than half an inch across. 



Buchnera elongata. Flowers white, purple, or bluish, small, 

 in terminal spikes. Corolla tubular below, expanded and 

 5-lobed above. Stamens 4. Plants 1-2 ft. tall, seldom 

 branched, rough with short, stiff hairs. Leaves opposite, 

 oblong, 1-3 in. long, sometimes toothed. Pinelands. Bloom- 

 ing all the year. Fla. to S. C. and Texas. 



Small Figworts (Several genera) 



Besides the species given above, we have in Florida a 

 number of small plants of this family that are found 

 chiefly in low grounds, where they are often very abundant. 

 The flowers of all are small, the largest are barely one-half 

 inch across. Among them Ilysanthes, which carpets damp 

 places, merits its specific name of gmndiflora only when 

 the purple-spotted flowers are compared with the small 

 size of the plants. This little mudwort is very common 

 in many parts of the peninsula, and is said to be a favorite 

 food of wild turkeys. Stiff, rough little plants of Sophro- 

 nanthe are often found in dry pinelands. Gratiola, of 

 low, erect growth, is common in wet soil, and a moss-like 

 Hemianthus, with flowers so minute as to be nearly in- 

 visible, sometimes carpets muddy places. 



