PINK AND RED GROUP 



westward and southward. On Long Island I happen to 

 have found it only in Bridgehampton. 



Oswego Tea. Bee Balm 



Monarda dtdyma. —Family, Mint. Color, bright red. Tin- 

 bracts near the flowers are also a bright red, adding to the 

 brilliant scarlet of the blossom. Calyx, narrowly tubular, with 5 

 bristly-pointed teeth, hairy in the throat. Corolla, 2 -lipped, the 

 upper arched, the lower 3-divided into unequal lobes. Flo 

 thickly massed in solitary clusters, terminating a simple, straight 

 stem, 2 to 3 feet high. Leaves, thin, petioled, 3 to 6 inches long, 

 opposite, sharply pointed at apex, rounded at base, serrate. July 

 to September. 



Plant with strong mint odor, showy, not uncommon, grow- 

 ing in damp woods along banks of streams from Mew Eng- 

 land to Michigan, south to Georgia. Found 5,200 feet high 

 in North Carolina. 



Field Mint 



Mentha arvensis. — Family, Mint. Color, pink or white. (See 

 White Flowers, p. 123.) 



Purple Gerardia 

 Gerardia purpurea, — Family, Figwort. Color, rose purple or 

 a purplish pink. (Most botanists call it purple, but to me it is 

 more on the crimson tint.) Leaves, opposite, linear, pointed at 

 apex, rough on ma gins. Late summer, August to October. 



Forsaking the regular 2 -lipped type of the Figwort Family, 

 the gerardia blossoms are bell-shape, with irregular, spread- 

 ing, round-lobed borders. The short calyx-teeth are sharp- 

 pointed. Flowers, 1 inch across, showy, growing on di- 

 vergent branches. Supposed to be root-parasitic. I have 

 seen the purple gerardia in spreading masses covering sandy 

 ground with mats several feet in width. Near the a >ast from 

 Massachusetts to Florida and Texas. 



Seaside Gerardia 

 G. marttima. — Color, bright rose. Much like the purple gerardia, 

 but with calyx-leaves and stem somewhat fleshy. Stem, <> to 12 



inches high. In salt marshes near the seashore, from Maine to 

 Florida. July to August. 



Slender Gerardia 

 G. tenuifolia. — Color, rose pink. Corolia, \ inch long, as de- 

 Scribed in G. purpurea. heaves, very narrow, linear, acute, 



289 



