1018 



MIMULUS 



MIMULUS 



MlMULUS (Latin, a little mimic, from the grinning 

 fls. ) . Scrophularidcece. This genus includes the Monkey 

 Flower, M. luteus, and the Musk Plant, M. moschatus. 

 Monkey Flowers are something like snapdragons, though 

 they do not have a closed throat. They are 2-lipped fls., 

 with 2 upper and 3 lower lobes, which are all rounded 

 and usually irregularly splashed and dotted with brown 

 on a yellow ground. Though perennial, they are com- 

 monly treated as annuals and are considerably used for 

 pot culture in winter, as well as for summer bloom out- 

 doors. The Musk Plant is grown for its scented foliage 

 and pale yellow fls. It is sometimes used in hanging 

 baskets, but the foliage is so sticky that it gathers a 

 great deal of dust. 



Mimulus is a genus of about 40 species, mostly Ameri- 

 can: herbs, decumbent or erect, glabrous or pilose and 

 clammy, rarely shrubby : Ivs. opposite, entire or toothed : 

 fls. axillary, solitary or becoming racemose by the reduc- 

 tion of the upper Ivs. ; calyx 5-angled, with 5 short or 

 long teeth; corolla tube cylindrical, sometimes swelled 

 at the throat; stamens 4, didynamous: capsule oblong 

 or linear, loculicidally dehiscent. 



The kinds described below are all perennial at least 

 by underground parts, and most of them are natives of 

 wet and shady places in northwestern America. Latest 

 monograph by A. Gray in Syn. Flo. N. Amer., Vol. II, 

 part 1, pp. 273, 442. They mostly grow 2-4 ft. high and 

 bloom all summer. Mimulus Calif ornica is advertised. 

 Diplacus is generally referred to Mimulus. iff -^ 



The sight of Monkey Flowers always carries the writer 

 back to boyhood days. A certain window on his way to 

 school was brightened every spring by a fine display of 

 Monkey Flowers and Musk. Though these two species 

 were thus happily associated, it is doubtful whether the 

 owner knew of their kinship. There is nothing difficult 

 in the culture of Mimulus. Some of the finest plants 

 have been self-sown on a rubbish heap. Abundance of 

 water is essential. The seed has great vitality, and will 

 germinate for many years in the place where once seeds 

 have fallen. They are not hardy. 



M. luteus, with its varieties and hybrids, particularly 

 var. maculosus, is the best known. There are double and 

 hose-in-hose varieties, but the single" forms are the hand- 

 somest. It often self-sows in moist'gardens. M. cardi- 

 nalis, a handsome Calif ornian perennial, is occasionally 

 hardy, but does best treated as an annual. M, ghttinosa 

 is a pretty shrubby species, with coppery fls., once a 

 common greenhouse plant, but rare enough now to be 



almost a novelty. 



alatus, 10. 

 alpinus, 1. 

 aurantiacus, 6. 

 cardinalis, 5. 

 Clevelandi, 7. 

 cupreus, 2. 

 gloriosus, 1. 

 glutinosus, 6. 



INDEX. 



hybridus, 1. 

 Lewisii, 4. 

 luteus, 1, 2. 

 maculosus, 1. 

 moschatus, 3. 

 parviflorus, 8. 

 quinquevulnerus , 1. 

 ringens, 9. 



T. D. HATFIELD. 



rivularis, 1. 

 Rozzlii, 1. 

 roseus, 4. 

 tigridioides, 1. 

 tigrinus, 1. 

 variegatus, 1. 

 Youngeana, 1. 



A. Color of fls. yellow, brown or brick-red. 

 B. Plants herbaceous. 



c. Foliage not sticky or clammy.. 1. 



luteus 

 cupreus 



cc. Foliage sticky and clammy. 

 D. Stamens not thrust out of the 



corolla. 

 E. .Lvs. pinnately veined ____ 3. moschatus 



EE. Lvs. parallel-veined ..... 4. Lewisii 



DD. Stamens thrust out of the 



corolla ................... 5. cardinalis 



. Plants shrubby, at least at the base. 

 c. Lvs. linear, minutely toothed or 



cc. Lvs. lanceolate, serrate. 



D. Fls. yelloiv 



DD. Fls. brick-red "... 



AA. Color of fls. violet, purple or lilac. 

 B. Lvs. stalkless: pedicels longer than 



fls 9 



BB. Lvs. stalked: pedicels shorter'ih'dn 



the calyx 10. 



. glutinosus 



Clevelandi 

 parviflorus 



ringens 

 alatus 





sharply toothed, upper ones smaller : corolla 1-2 in 

 long. Alaska to Chile. B.M. 1501. Monkey FlcTwers 

 nearly always have yellow throats with brown dots. The 

 lobes are sometimes clear yellow. In var. rivularis 

 Lindl., only one lobe has a large brown patch 

 12:1030. L.B.C. 16:1575. In var. Youngeana, Hook 

 every lobe has such a patch. B.M. 3363. B.R. 20:1674! 

 In the common strains these patches are more or less 



1. luteus, Linn. MONKEY FLOWER. Fig. 1404. Gla- 

 brous, the larger forms 2-4 ft. high : Ivs. parallel-veined, 



1404. Forms of Mimulus luteus (X 



broken up and the fls. irregularly mottled and dotted. 

 F. 1863:73 (as M. macitlosus). V. 10:289 (as M. hy- 

 bridus). A very distinct set of colors is represented by 

 var. variegatus, Hook., the throat chiefly white, but with 

 2 yellow longitudinal lines dotted with brown on the 

 middle lobe of the lower lip; all the lobes bright crim- 

 son-purple, with a violet reverse. B.R. 21:1796. B.M. 

 3336. L.B.C. 19:1872. Modified as described under var. 

 Youngeana. E.H. 1851: 261. F. 1850:137. The pictures 

 cited above bear various legends which. are not here 

 repeated. The varietal names given above do not appear 

 in the trade, the leading current names being duplex 

 (hose-in-hose), gloriosus, hybridus, hybridus tigrinus, 

 hybridus tigrinus grandiflorus, quinquevulnerus maxi- 

 mus, tigridioides and tigrinus. Some of these names ar 

 advertised as varieties, but all of them usually appear 

 if they were species. For M. hybridus cupreus, Hort., 

 see M . cupreus. 



Var. alpinus, Gray (M. Rwzlii, Hort.). About 2-12 in. 

 high, leafy to the top: stem 1-4-fld.: corolla %-\% in. 

 long. 



2. cupreus, Regel (M. luteus, var. cuprea, Hook.). 

 A Chilean species, differing from M . luteus in its tufted 

 habit and the fls. yellow-.ftt first, finally becoming copper- 

 colored, and the lobes possibly rounder and more nearly 

 equal, the throat yellow, spotted brown. B.M. 5478. 

 Gn. 24, p. 177. R.H. 1883, p. 284. 



3. moschatus, Dougl. MUSK PLANT. Perennial, by 

 creeping stems 1-3 ft. long: fls. pale yellow, lightly 

 dotted and splashed with brown. B.C. to Calif, and 

 Utah. B.R. 13:1118. -This and M. luteus have a broad 

 throat. The fls. are normally about % in. across, but in 

 F.M. 1877:248 (var. Harrisonii) they are 1% in. across. 

 Hardy, evergreen trailer for damp, shady spots. Fine 

 for planting under cool greenhouse benches. 



4. Lewisii, Pursh. A more slender plant than the 

 next, greener, and merely pubescent: Ivs. minutely 

 toothed: fls. rose-red or paler, the lobes all spreading. 

 Shady, moist ground, B. C. to Calif, and Utah. B.M. 

 3353 and B.R. 19:1591 (both as M. roseus}. 



