Minnesota Plant Life. 



381 



The flowers are yellow and are arranged in a dense raceme at 

 the end of the slender stem, not usually more than a foot in 

 height. The leaves in this variety are linear. The Canada 

 toad-flax, not an abundant plant in Minnesota, resembles the 

 ordinary sort except in the color of its flowers, which are bluish 

 or white. 



Pileworts, turtle-heads and snapdragons. The figwort or 

 pilewort is a tall herb, often five or six feet high, with a large 

 terminal panicle of small purplish, two-lipped flowers of curious 

 shape. There are five stamens, but only four of them produce 

 pollen sacs. The fifth is reduced to a little scale. The stems 

 are somewhat four-sided, but the plant has the typical figwort 



capsule,with two chambers, open- 

 ing along the partitions. The 

 turtle-head is a swamp plant, 

 with white or pink flowers, large 

 in size and borne in the axils of 

 the upper leaves, or in terminal 

 spikes. The flower is shaped 

 somewhat like a turtle's head, 

 hence the common name. The 

 seeds in this variety are provided 

 with wings. The snapdragons, 

 known also as beardtongues, and 

 the monkeyflowers have usually 

 bell-shaped or mouth-shaped 

 flowers. Several difl'erent kinds 

 of beard-tongues occur and they 

 are especially abundant on dry banks or high blufTs in the 

 prairie region of the state. The monkeyflowers, of which 

 there are two sorts, have the flowers on distinct stems in the 

 axils of the leaves. Each flower seems to have an upper and 

 lower jaw, closed together like a mouth. One variety has blue 

 flowers and the other has yellow. Both are found in swamps 

 or along streams, — not, however, in peat-bogs or tamarack 

 swamps, or only very sparingly. 



Hedge-hyssops. The hedge-hyssops are mint-like in their 

 appearance, but lack the fragrance of the mint. There are two 

 or three varieties, one of which occurs in peat-bogs. The 

 flowers are considerably smaller than those of the turtle-head, 



Fig. 182. 



Monkey flower. After Britton 

 and Brown. 



