94 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



ent in size, but the upper with two lobes curving 

 backward and the lower with three spreading out. 

 Each lobe has flecks or lines, or both, of darker 

 rose or sometimes crimson. The lower lip has 

 stripes of pure gold or paler yellow, with hairy 

 ridges, to show the way to the honey dishes. Inside 

 the corolla are the four stamens standing in pairs 

 with their anthers ready to discharge the pollen on 

 any visitor. The pistil has a stigma that acts in a 

 peculiar way. It spreads out two flat surfaces, white 

 and sticky, one to either side. If a grain of pollen 

 touches it, the two parts come together mechani- 

 cally, closing tight while the pollen gets down to 

 the ovules. You can watch it work by touching the 

 lobe with a pin. 



The Pink Mimulus is Mimulus Lewisii in bot- 

 any. Mimulus is from the Latin for "comic actor,'' 

 because the genus seems to present a mimicking face. 

 From this fact, many of our species are commonly 

 known as the "Monkey Flower." Lewisii is for 

 Captain Meriweather Lewis of the United States 

 Army who, with Captain William Clark, in 1803-6, 

 journeyed from the Mississippi across the Rocky 

 Mountains and down the Columbia River to the 

 Pacific Ocean, the first white men to make this 

 arduous trip. It is on the results of their expedi- 

 tion that the United States based our claims to the 

 Oregon Territory. Great Britain acknowledged the 



