WHISPERING EELLS (Emmendnthe penduliflora, Benth.). 

 Flowers abc<ut \ inch long, cream-colored or light yellow, bell- 

 shaped, erect at first, but eventually drooping on thread-like 

 stalks; borne in rather short, loose racemes, on stems from 6 

 inches to nearly 2 feet tall. Leaves narrow with numerous 

 shallow, toothed lobes. A hairy, somewhat sticky annual, 

 often branched from the base, blooming from April to June, 

 and frequent on dry, open slopes and hills, Central and South- 

 ern California, eastward to Utah and Arizona. 



Your first sight of Whispering Bells may lead you to think 

 this popular name more sentimental than true, for though the 

 freshly opened flowers certainly simulate bells, they do not 

 whisper. Found late in the season, however, the corollas are 

 as dry as paper and rustle in every passing breeze, justifying 

 the poetic appellative. The persistence of the flowers after 

 fading is with the yellow color a character that distin- 

 guishes the genus Emmenanthe from the closely allied Phacelia. 

 In fact the flowers have the property of Everlastings and may, 

 as they, be employed for dry floral decoration. The name 

 Emmenanthe is a Greekish way of saying "the flower that 

 abides." 



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