CHAPTER IX 



early and remain closed in unfavorable weather, and the bees seem to 

 seek them mainly for shelter. Honey is hardly perceptible in the 

 exquisite, pale blue N. Menziesii, H. & A., and I have rarely seen it 

 visited ; but both of these species have larger flowers in the north and 

 may have quite a different story of pollination. The flowers proba- 

 bly pollinate themselves when they close. 



There are about forty species of Phacelias in California, and many 

 of them are nearly allied to P. tanacetifolia, Benth. The leaves 

 of this group are much dissected, being bi-pinnate or tri-pinnate, and 

 the flowers are nearly always of some shade of blue ; the name wild 

 heliotrope has arisen because of their color and form of inflorescence, 

 heliotrope really belonging to the family Boraginaceae. The flowers of 

 P. ianacetifolia seem always well provided with honey, which is well 

 protected and excluded from all but useful guests. The anthers face 

 upward during dehiscence, and the stigmas also, when they mature, 

 are held where they are sure to be struck by the guest. I know no 

 native flower that gets a greater share of attention from the bees than 

 this species, and the group as a whole is very successful. There are 

 other Phacelias with entire leaves ; one of these, P. circinata, Jacq., a 

 rough, hoary plant, is very widely distributed ; it bears white flowers 

 in late spring and summer. 



A considerable number of Phacelias have notched, viscid leaves ; 

 four of these species with large, handsome flowers are common in the 

 south. P. grandiflora, Gray, has mottled blue and white, rotate 

 flowers nearly two inches in diameter, but one rarely handles the 

 plant a second time, because it leaves a stain like iron rust ; it is also 

 poisonous to some people. P. viscida, too, has rotate flowers ; they 

 are nearly an inch in diameter and are often a very intense blue. P. 

 Whitlavid) Gray, and P. Parryi, Torr., grow in rich soil along river 

 bottoms or banks ; the flowers of both are a rich royal purple, those 

 of the former are bell-shaped and are commonly called Canterbury 

 bells ; the flowers of the other species are rotate with five white honey 

 guides near the centre. Both of these flowers seem to depend on the 

 splendor of their attire to attract guests, for they supply very little 

 honey ; large bees occasionally visit P. Whitlavia for honey, and hive 

 bees often collect pollen from the conspicuous white anthers of P. 

 Parry i. 



Besides Nemophilas, Phacelias, and the Bllisia mentioned in the 

 Reader, two other genera of Hydrophyllaceae contribute widely dis- 

 tributed plants : Emmenanthe penduliflora, Benth., is common on 

 dry hillsides; its most common name is whispering bells, from the fact 

 that its yellow, bell-shaped corollas, instead of falling off, become dry 



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