From Blue to Purple 



slender, simple or branched, from 6 in. to 2 ft. high. Leaves: 



Thin, opposite ; upper and more acute ones clasping the stem ; 



lower, ovate ones on short petioles. Fruit: A round capsule 



to which the enlarged calyx adheres. 

 Preferred Habitat Moist meadows, woods, and thickets. 

 .Flowering Season April June. 

 Distribution Western New York and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, 



Kentucky, and Indian Territory. 



Next of kin to the great Paulonia tree, whose deliciously 

 sweet, vanilla-scented, trumpet-shaped violet flowers are happily 

 fast becoming as common here as in their native Japan, what has 

 this fragile, odorless blossom of the meadows in common with it ? 

 Apparently nothing ; but superficial appearances count for little or 

 nothing among scientists, to whom the structure of floral organs 

 is of prime importance ; and analysis instantly shows the close 

 relationship between these dissimilar-looking cousins. Even with- 

 out analysis one can readily see that the monkey flower is not far 

 removed. 



Because few writers have arisen as yet in the newly settled 

 regions of the middle West and Southwest, where blue-eyed 

 Mary dyes acres of meadow land with her heavenly color, her 

 praises are little sung in the books, but are loudly buzzed by 

 myriads of bees that are her most devoted lovers. " I regard the 

 flower as especially adapted to the early flying bees with abdom- 

 inal collecting brushes for pollen i.e., species ofOsmia and these 

 bees," says Professor Robertson of Illinois, "although not the 

 exclusive visitors, are far more abundant and important than all 

 the other visitors together." For them are the brownish marks 

 on the palate provided as pathfinders. At the pressure of their 

 strong heads the palate yields to give them entrance, and at their 

 removal it springs back to protect the pollen against the inroads 

 of flies, mining bees, and beetles. As the longer stamens shed 

 their pollen before the shorter ones mature theirs, bees must visit 

 the flower several times to collect it all. 



Monkey-flower 



(Minulus ringens) Figwort family 



Flowers Purple, violet, or lilac, rarely whitish ; about I in. long, 

 solitary, borne on slender footstems from axils of upper 

 leaves. Calyx prismatic, 5-angled, 5-toothed; corolla irregu- 

 lar, tubular, narrow in throat, 2-lipped; upper lip 2-lobed, 

 erect; under lip 3-lobed, spreading; 4 stamens, a long and a 

 short pair, inserted on corolla tube; i pistil with 2-lobed, 

 plate-like stigma. Stem : Square, erect, usually branched, I 



J6 



