INDIAN PAINT BRUSH (Castilleia foliolosa, H. & A.). Flow- 

 ers red, f inch long, tubular with a beak-like upper lip enclos- 

 ing the style and 4 stamens, the corolla all but hidden within 

 the bright red calyx; borne in terminal spikes with bright red 

 3-lobed bracts, the whole effect being that of a brush dipped 

 in red paint. Leaves narrow, an inch long or so, crowded be- 

 low and fascicled in the axils, these and the stems densely 

 white woolly. A perennial with bunched, somewhat woody 

 stems, a foot or two high, common on dry hills of Western 

 California from San Diego northward; blooming March till 

 July and sparingly at other seasons. 



There are numerous Pacific Coast species of Indian Paint- 

 brush, all easily recognized generically (the color sometimes 

 varying to yellowish or white) though the specific differences 

 are sometimes troublesome to the amateur. An interesting 

 characteristic of the genus Castilleia (the name, by the way, 

 commemorates the Spanish botanist, Castillejo) is the presence 

 of suckers upon the roots, by means of which sustenance is 

 extracted from the root systems of other plants an instance 

 of partial parasitLm. 



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