462 THE FIGWORT FAMILY. 



Lyon's turtle-head by its lanceolate, sharply serrated leaves, and again 

 because its bracts are not ciliate. Its corolla also appears to open its 

 mouth more widely and usually is of a pure, waxy white, although also it 

 occurs faintly tinted with pink, while in the high mountains of North 

 Carolina I found it solidly and vividly pink. In the flowering season the 

 plant's leaves are collected and, although very bitter, are used in domestic 

 practice for their strengthening properties. 



C. obliqua, red turtle-head, the third species, which is also with us a native, 

 bears oblong, or broadly lanceolate, leaves and slender red or magenta 

 flowers. It is not as frequently met with as the two others. 



HAIRY BEARD=TONGUE. 



Pentstemo7i hirsutiis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Figwort. Purplish. Scentless. Florida to Maine and ivestward. May-Jzily. 



Flowers : growing on short, pubescent pedicels in axillary and terminal thyrsus- 

 Hke inflorescence. Calyx: five-parted. Corolla: tubular; dilated above, two- 

 lipped, the upper Hp with two rounded lobes; the lower one three-lobed, the throat 

 nearly closed and densely villous at its base. Stamens: five, included, the fifth 

 one sterile and having its filament closely bearded. Leaves: opposite, lanceolate 

 and sessile, or the lower ones oblong, or ovate and tapering into margined petioles; 

 entire or finely dentate ; pubescent on the under sides, or glabrous. Stem : slender, 

 one to three feet high, covered with a fine pubescence. 



After the turtle-heads and the monkey-flower there are in the figwort 

 family few more quaintly expressive flowers than the beard-tongues, as 

 they are commonly called from the hairy, palate-like part of the lower lip 

 which in this species especially nearly closes the throat. The sterile stamen 

 also is bearded, thus heightening their peculiar look. This plant indeed is 

 one of the beautiful and showy ones of woods and rocky banks, and full of 

 spirit it seems when abundantly in bloom. 



P. Smallii we found growing near Blowing Rock in North Carolina at 

 an elevation of about four thousand feet. On a first glance there was 

 something about it which reminded me of the shell-flower, Chelona glabra. 

 It is a smooth plant or nearly so with large, lanceolate and clasping leaves, 

 and in an open thyrsus the flowers grow on slender, pubescent pedicels. 



P. dissectus, which through and about Georgia grows in dry soil, is known 

 from the way its leaves are pinnately divided into linear segments, either 

 entire, or lobed. Of the purple bell-shaped corolla the lobes are rounded 

 and in size nearly equal. 



P. Pentstemon., smooth beard-tongue, produces rather few flowers in its 

 open, slender thyrsus, and their purple corollas greatly increase in size 

 towards their apices. For the most part the plant is smooth, although 

 again slightly pubescent among the inflorescence. 



