158 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



high, very upright, unbranched, hollow in the interior, 

 round in general section, but a good deal channeled on the 

 exterior, and of a dull purplish-brown or rusty-red tint. It 

 is freely clothed with dry and withered-looking scales, a 

 feature that may be clearly seen in our illustration, and 

 at its base it expands into a bulbous-looking mass, closely 

 clothed and covered with numerous overlapping scales. 

 As the stem ascends these gradually become less crowded 

 together. The plant has no true leaves. The flowers, 

 like the stems, vary in tint from a dull purplish brown to 

 one of a more reddish tinge, a tint that all our readers who 

 own a colour-box will readily recognise when we call it a 

 burnt sienna; there is often a purplish bloom too that adds 

 to the beauty, and altogether the dry and withered-looking 

 thing will on closer view prove wonderfully varied in quiet 

 gradations of yellow, red, brown, and purple, and by no 

 means unworthy of the pencil of many who would probably 

 cast it aside. On picking off one of the members we find 

 it in all its parts a true flower, duly furnished, like the 

 golden broom which waves above it, with calyx, corolla, 

 stamens, and all else that is essential to a typical blossom. 

 The corolla is irregular in form, and with a widely- 

 opened mouth. The tube of the corolla curves con- 

 siderably, and gives a quaintly grotesque look to the 

 plant, that may be more readily seen in our figure 

 than appreciated by any verbal description. The mouth 

 of the flower is deeply cut into two prominent lips; 

 the upper of these is concave and slightly cut into three 

 segments, while the lower and larger lip is similarly cut, 

 but the cuts are much deeper. Of the three lobes or 

 segments thus formed, the central one is considerably the 

 largest. All the segments are very much waved and 



