MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 



There are several kinds of Trichostema, all North 

 American; herbs, sometimes shrubby; leaves toothless, or 

 with wavy margins; flowers in clusters; calyx usually with 

 five unequal lobes; corolla with a long slender tube and 

 five oblong lobes nearly alike, forming in bud a roundish 

 ball, enclosing the coiled stamens; stamens four, the upper 

 pair longer, with very long, blue or purple filaments, 

 conspicuously protruding from the corolla, suggesting 

 both the Greek name, meaning "hair-like stamens," and 

 the common name, Blue-curls. 



This is shrubby and usually has many 

 Romero, Woolly 

 Blue-curls stems, from two to four feet high, with 



Trichostema stiffish leaves, dark green on the upper 



lanatum s ide, paler and woolly on the under, the 



margins rolled back, and beautiful flower- 

 Summer, autumn 4 

 California clusters, which are sometimes a foot long. 



The bright blue corolla is nearly an inch 

 long, with a border shaped like a violet, the smaller 

 buds are pink, and the purple stamens and style are 

 two inches long and very conspicuous. The calyxes, 

 stems, and buds are all covered with fuzzy, pink wool, 

 forming a most unusual and beautiful color scheme, 

 giving a changeable almost iridescent effect of mauve 

 and pink, in remarkable contrast to the brilliant blue 

 of the flowers. This grows on rocky hills in southern 

 California, is pleasantly aromatic and used medicinally by 

 Spanish-Californians. T. lanceolatum is called Camphor 

 Weed, because of its strong odor, like camphor but 

 exceedingly unpleasant. It grows on dry plains and low 

 hills in the Northwest and is an important bee-plant, 

 blooming in summer and autumn, and is also called 

 Vinegar Weed. 



There are a few kinds of Agastache, all North American, 

 perennial herbs, mostly tall and coarse; leaves toothed, 

 with leaf-stalks; flowers small, in a terminal spike, with 

 bracts; calyx bell-shaped, with five teeth and slightly two- 

 lipped; corolla with a two-lobed, erect, upper lip, the lower 

 lip spreading and three-lobed, the middle lobe broader and 

 scalloped; stamens four, all with anthers, the upper pair 

 longer; nutlets smooth. The Greek name means "many 

 spikes." 



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