264 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



about one-half of an inch long, the tube shorter than the lip, the upper lip 

 erect, concave, entire; lower lip spreading and three -cleft, the base of the 

 lower lip rough and palatelike. Fruit a capsule about one-half of an inch 

 long, slightly compressed below. 



In wet places and shallow water along lakes, rivers and ponds, Quebec 

 to Michigan, south to Georgia and Texas. Flowering from May to August. 

 Usually growing in dense colonies and from a distance easily mistaken for a 

 coarse sort of grass. Very abundant along the Seneca river and along 



the shores of Oneida lake. 



Lopseed Family 



Phrymaceae 

 Lopseed 



Phryma leptostachya Linnaeus 



Plate 208 



A rather slender, perennial herb with erect, puberulent, somewhat four- 

 angled stem, branched above, I to 3 feet high, the branches slender and 

 opposite. Leaves opposite, thin, ovate, pointed at the apex, coarsely 

 toothed, the lower ones long petioled, the upper ones short petioled or sessile, 

 2 to 5 inches long. Flowers small, about one-fourth of an inch long, in 

 narrow spikes terminating the stem and branches, usually the flowers 

 opposite each other. Calyx cylindrical, two-lipped, the upper lip cleft 

 into three long bristle or hairlike teeth, the lower lip divided into two 

 short, slender teeth. Corolla tube cylindrical, two-lipped, pinkish purple, 

 the upper lip erect, concave and notched, the lower lip larger and divided 

 into three spreading, convex and blunt lobes. Stamens four, included 

 within the tube of the corolla. Flowers erect at first, soon becoming at 

 right angles to the stem when in full bloom and later as the fruit 

 matures becoming abruptly deflexed against the axis of the stem, whence 

 the name " lopseed." 



In woods and thickets, New Brunswick to Manitoba, south to Florida 

 and Kansas; also in Bermuda and eastern Asia. Flowering from June 

 to August. 



