74 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



are two-lipped and at first sight appear to have but four petals 

 each, although the plant is a member of the figwort family 

 where five petals is the rule. Nor does there appear to be 

 either stamens or pistils in the fiower until upon further in- 

 vestigation we find the missing petal forming a sac beneath 

 the lower lip and entirely concealing the stamens and pistil. 

 This curious arrangement is an adaptation for cross-pollina- 

 tion and reminds one of similar contrivances in the peas, beans 

 and their allies. That it is successful is shown by the great 

 number of seeds the plant is able to ripen. Another singular 

 feature in the sharp contrast in color between the upper and 

 lower lip. The two upper petals are pure white and the tw'o 

 lower dep blue. Although but four petals are visible it has 

 a very violet-like appearance. The fiowers encircle the stem 

 in several successive whorls of about fi\-e each and form what 

 someone has characterized as a "many storied flower cluster." 

 The lower circles bloom first and the blooming impulse slowly 

 mounts to the top. There are several other species in the 

 ^^'^est. but all seem to agree in having bi-colored fiowers. To- 

 ward the East our common species barely reaches western 

 New York, which botanizers in New England may well regret. 



The usual habitat of the plant is in moist woods and not 

 in open meadows as some writers of popular botany, having 

 confused this with the bluet on account of a similarit)^ of 

 common names, would have us believe. Nor are the upper 

 petals blue and the lower ones white as one prominent guide 

 to the wild-fiowers asserts. We who know the Collinsia 

 strongly suspect this particular guide to have written up the 

 plant from the Manual and not from specimens. The fanci- 

 ful nature of blue-eyed Mary is often given in books, but 

 innocence is much better and e\en this, in common parlance 

 gives way to wild forget-me-not at least in my own region. 



