Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 313 



PURPLE GERARDIA (Gerardia purpurea) is a 

 pretty little species that decorates low, moist, sandy 

 fields and meadows with its beautiful purple-pink 

 blossoms. The slender stem is quite branchy and 

 averages about a foot in height, though it occasion- 

 ally attains heights of two feet. The leaves, closely 

 crowded along the stem, are linear, pointed and 

 rough-margined. From three to eight flowers, open- 

 ing one at a time, grow along the ends of each branch. 

 The corolla is broad and about 1 in. long, bright pur- 

 plish pink, the mouth of the funnel spreading into 

 five rounded lobes, spotted or downy within. 



If we watch these flowers for a few moments, we 

 will be sure to see a big, burly, bumblebee buzzing 

 along inspecting each blossom, not with an eye to 

 their beauty but thinking only of the sweets they con- 

 tain for him. As he reaches the bottom of the cor- 

 olla, the flower fits over his head like a little tobog- 

 gan cap. All the Gerardias and Foxgloves are quite 

 parasitic, attaching their roots to those of other 

 plants and getting part of their sustenance from them. 

 One would little suspect such pretty plants of such 

 pilfering. This species is found chiefly along the 

 coasts of the Atlantic, the Great Lakes and the Gulf 

 of Mexico. It blooms from August to October. 



A more slender, smaller flowered species (G. ten- 

 uifolia) is found throughout the eastern half of the 

 United States. 



SMOOTH FALSE FOXGLOVE (Gerardia virgini- 

 ca) has a smooth, branching stem from 2 to 6 feet 

 high. The leaves are lance-shaped, wavy-edged and 

 usually toothed. The large, lemon-yellow flowers 

 measure nearly two inches long by an inch broad. 

 The plant grows from Me. to Minn, and southwards 

 and blooms during August and Sept. The Fern- 

 leaved. Foxglove, (G. pedicularia) is smaller and has 

 pinnatifid leaves. It is found in the same range. 



