CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



CHAPTER XI. 



PLANTS OF HIGH RANK. 



Men attain high rank because of marked ability ; 

 plants, too, are considered of high rank when they are 

 specially well fitted to accomplish their ends. Of course 

 the flowers of higher rank unite their petals to secure the 

 more desirable guests, and many of them make their corol- 

 las two-lipped, using the two upper petals for one lip, the 

 three lower for the other ; the lower lip usually serves as a 

 platform for the guest, as we shall see later on. In this 

 chapter we shall study some common flowers belonging to 

 two two-lipped, or bilabiate families. 



The Mimulus, or monkey-flower, Fig. 52, belongs to 

 one of these families. The kind of Mimulus in the picture 

 grows on a shrub several feet high. In many parts of 

 California there are hillsides entirely covered with these 

 shrubs, and it is worth going far to see them when they are 

 in full flower in late spring time. They bloom most pro- 

 fusely, and the flowers are large and beautifully colored ; 

 sometimes pale yellow or salmon, sometimes buffer orange, 

 sometimes quite red. There is another verj' common 

 Mimulus, which grows along streams or irrigating ditches; 

 it has large yellow flowers with spotted, nearly closed 

 throats, the shape of the flowers suggesting the common 

 name, snapdragons. 



Now both kinds of Mimulus have exclusive flowers. 

 The shrubby Mimulus has corolla tubes two or three inches 



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