GIANT HYSSOP (Lophdnthus tirticifolius, Benth.). Flowers 

 white or violet, the upper lip erect, the lower spreading, calyx 

 with lavender teeth, the exserted stamens (4) with lavender 

 anthers and white filaments; -borne in crowded terminal spikes 

 sometimes 6 inches long. Leaves 1 to 3 inches long, sweetish- 

 aromatic, toothed, and nettle-like in look. An erect, coarse- 

 looking, perennial herb, 3 to 5 feet high, blooming in summer, 

 and abundant in mountain meadows usually at moderate 

 altitudes of the Sierra Nevada in California, northward to 

 Oregon and eastward to Nevada and Colorado. 



Visitors in the Yosemite region cannot fail to notice the deli- 

 cate color often given to meadow borders by the plantations of 

 the Giant Hyssop. Its common name is an echo, I take it, of 

 the plant's association by older botanists with the genus 

 Hyssopus, the leaves of which, under the name of Garden 

 Hyssop, are still used medicinally by old-fashioned herbalists. 

 It should not be confused with the Hyssop of Scripture, whose 

 identity seems to be unsettled. 



By some botanists the name Lophanthus has been discarded 

 for Agastache, and by these our plant is listed as Agdstache 

 urticifolia, O. Ktz. 



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