MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 



309 



NARROW-LEAVED PUCCOON 



LithosperniuDi august if oliuin. Borage Family- 

 Stems : branched, erect or ascending. Leaves : linear, sessile, acute. 

 Flowers: of two kinds, in terminal leafy racemes; corolla of the earlier 

 ones salver-form, bright yellow, five-lobed, the lobes erose-denticulate, 

 the throat crested ; later fiowers much smaller and pale yellow, cleistog- 

 amous, abundantly fertile, their pedicels recurved in fruit. Fruit: nutlets 

 white, smooth, shining, ovoid, more or less pitted, keeled on the inner side. 



The French call this Puccoon Plante aiix Perles, because of 

 the hard stony seeds that mature in the calyx, and which, 

 though at first soft and green, gradually become hard, white, 

 and shining. It is on account of these nutlets that the plant 

 is named from the Greek lithos^ " a stone," and sperm, ''a seed." 

 The flowers are a pretty lemon colour, the earlier ones being 

 of a much deeper shade and larger in size than those which 

 appear later in the summer. They grow in close leafy clusters, 

 and have a long, salver-form, five-cleft corolla. The stems and 

 leaves are quite downy. This Puccoon grows in small tufts or 

 mats, from six to ten inches high, and is usually found on the 

 dry open lands, where its 



"Leaves and branches, crossed and linked, 

 Cling like children and embrace." 



YELLOW BEARD-TONGUE 



PenstefHon confertus. Figwort Family 



Stems : slender. Leaves : lower ones lanceolate, attenuate below to 

 narrow petioles, mostly entire, the cauHne sessile by a broad base. 

 Flowers : thyrsus spiciform, interrupted, dense, many-flowered clusters ; 

 corolla very narrow, lower lip conspicuously bearded within. 



The Yellow Beard-tongue grows high up on the mountains. 

 The flowers, which vary in hue from yellow to cream colour, 

 are set in several dense clusters round about the stem, encir- 

 cling it at intervals. For further information regarding the 

 Penstemons see page 243 in the Blue to Purple Section. 



