Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 307 



TURTLE-HEAD (Chelone glabra.) 



Many plants derive their names from the fancied 

 resemblance of their flowers to some well known 

 objects. Often these fancies are so far fetched that 

 no one but the authors are able to discover the reason 

 for the name. In this instance the profile view of the 

 blossom really does give a suggestion of the head of 

 a turtle; its generic name, too, is derived from the 

 Greek, meaning a tortoise. Other names applied less 

 often to this species are "Snake-head," "Cod-head" 

 and "Shell Flower." It is a moisture loving plant and 

 is usually found in wet locations in swamps or on the 

 banks of streams or ponds. 



The stem is stout, smooth and erect, from 1 to 3 

 feet tall. The leaves grow oppositely and are lance- 

 shaped, stemmed, pointed and toothed. The flowers 

 are clustered in a short spike at the summit of the 

 stem; the corolla is tubular, about an inch in length 

 and is white, tinged with pink. The upper lip is broad, 

 arched, creased and notched in the middle; the lower 

 lip is three lobed and woolly-bearded in the throat; 

 the corollas are set in five-parted calyces which, in 

 turn, are subtended by leafy bracts. Turtlehead 

 blooms from July until September and ranges from 

 Newfoundland to Manitoba and southwards. 



PENTESMON; BEARD-TONGUE (Pentesmon hir- 

 sutus) has a straight, slender woolly stem that grows 

 from 1 to 3 feet high. The leaves are light %reen, 

 lance-shaped, rough-edged or minutely toothed, the 

 upper ones seated oppositely on the stem and the 

 lower ones with short petioles. The small magenta- 

 white flowers are in panicled racemes. The trumpet- 

 shaped corolla has two lobes to the upper lip and 

 three on the lower, the throat nearly closed by a 

 hairy palate on the lower lip. Me. to Wisconsin and 

 southwards. 



