340 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AXD SWAMP 



73. Downy False Foxglove 



■^C " The foxgloves and the fern — 



How gracefully they grow, 

 With grand old oaks above them 

 And wavy grass below!" 



Gerardia flava. — Family, Figwort. Color, yellow. Leaves, 

 the lower often deeply and irregularly cut; upper entire, ob- 

 long, or lance-like. Time, July, August. 



A beautiful, bell-like flower, large, with a tubular, 5-cleft 

 short calyx and 5 broad, spreading, rounded corolla lobes end- 

 ing a long, somewhat inflated tube which is woolly inside. 

 The corolla slips easily off its receptacle. The 4 stavicns, 

 their anthers nodding towards each other in pairs, are beard- 

 ed. Plant 2 to 4 feet high. The buds are especially pretty, 

 often with a slight tinge of pink in their round heads. 



74. Smooth False Foxglove 



G. quercifolia is taller, 3 to 6 feet, and lacks the pubes- 

 cence of the preceding. The showy, large (2 inches long) 

 blossoms mingle with graceful foliage, the lower leaves 

 twice cut into fine divisions, the upper lance -shaped and 

 entire. 



Both the downy and smooth may sometimes be found together 

 on hillsides, or in light, thin woods. Picked, they afford little 

 satisfaction, because the leaves and stems quickly turn black. 

 Root parasitic. 



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75. Yellow Gerardia 



G.^ediculhria is a leafy, branching species, 2 or 3 feet high. 

 The leaves are very much cut, with dissected and toothed 

 lobes, the lower large, the upper quite small. The stems 

 bearing the pretty yellow bells are longer tiian the calyx-lobes. 



