BLUE BEARD-TONGUE (Penstemon spectdbilis, Thurber.) 

 Flowers very showy, funnel-form, somewhat inflated at the 

 throat, and somewhat 2-lipped, an inch long, rose-purple or 

 lilac, the corolla limb blue or violet; on slender footstalks dis- 

 posed in loose, leafless, terminal, pyramidal panicles sometimes 

 3 feet long. Leaves opposite, pale green, ovate, rather leath- 

 ery, with spiny teeth, the upper pairs joined at their broad 

 bases and clasping the stem as though pierced by it. A 

 stately, handsome, herbaceous perennial, from 3 to 6 feet high 

 and sometimes even taller, found on dry hillsides and plains 

 of Southern California, thence eastward to Arizona and New 

 Mexico; blooming from March till June. 



The genus Penstemon is a very large one of North America 

 and Mexico, and is represented on the Pacific Coast and con- 

 tiguous territory by at least 50 species and recognized varieties, 

 many of them with flowers of great beauty, which have been 

 introduced into gardens. A characteristic of the flowers is 

 that of the 5 stamens only 4 are provided with anthers, the 

 fifth being sterile but with a conspicuous filament. This in 

 some cases is bearded, whence the common name, Beard 

 tongue, though it is probably less used in popular speech than 

 the botanical name. 



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