ked WILD FLOWERS 



spreads in dense patches, and is found from New- 

 foundland to Florida, Texas, and Minnesota, and on 

 the Pacific Coast. It is naturalized from Europe. 



OSWEGO TEA. AMERICAN BEE BALM. 

 MOUNTAIN MINT. FRAGRANT BALM. 

 INDIAN'S PLUME 



Monarda didyma. Mint Family. 



Next to the magnificent Cardinal Flower, the Bee 

 Balm possesses the most intense red colouring of any 

 of our native wild flowers. It does not flaunt its 

 large, showy, tousled head in the bright sunshine, 

 but elects to illuminate the cool banks of shady wood- 

 land streams and secluded nooks in moist thickets, 

 where its beauty is reserved to surprise those who 

 happen to snoop in such retreats. Although strik- 

 ingly handsome and beautiful, it is a rather coarse 

 perennial herb, growing two or three feet in height. 

 The stout, rough-haired stalk is sharply four-angled 

 or square. The thin, aromatic, sharply toothed, dark 

 green leaves are oval, or oblong lance-shaped, with a 

 rounded or narrowed base and a long, sharp, tapering 

 tip. They are set on hairy stems in opposite pairs 

 and are plainly veined. The gaping, wide-mouthed, 

 deep scarlet, tubular flowers blossom in succeeding 

 circles, around a large, round terminal, solitary, dark 

 red head, into which they are gathered, and which is 

 surrounded with a circle of bright reddish, drooping, 

 leafy bracts. The conspicuous, funnel-formed corolla 

 is two-lipped. The erect, slender upper lip is arched 

 and sharp-pointed. The larger, spreading lower lip 



20 



