AMERICAN WILD FLOWERS 



ASS 



PLANT, a scarlet saprophyte especially abundant in conifer 

 forests of the Sierras; the fleshy stem is almost entirely covered 

 with numerous five-lobed flowers in a thick head. Similar appear- 

 ing heterotrophic plants occur in the Broom-rape Family 

 {Orobanchaceae)^ which includes broom-rape, squawroot and 

 beechdrops. 



The Mint Family 



In the Mint Family (Labiatae), we find a great number of 

 aromatic and square-stemmed plants with opposite or whorled 



C fli D 



Fig. 277.— The Mint Family includes blue curls (A), skull cap (B), wild mint 

 (D) and bee balm (C). 



leaves; the flowers are characteristically two-lipped, with the 

 upper lip divided into two lobes and the lower into three (fig. 

 277). 



Hairy germander, thriving in moist woods from New 

 England to the Mississippi valley, produces terminal clusters of 



