FIGWORT FAMILY. Scrophularlaceac. 



FIGWORT FAMILY. Scrophulariaceoe. 



A large family, widely distributed, most of them natives 

 of temperate regions; chiefly herbs, with bitter juice, 

 sometimes narcotic and poisonous; without stipules; the 

 flowers usually irregular; the calyx usually with four or 

 five divisions, sometimes split on the lower or upper side, 

 or on both sides; the corolla with united petals, nearly 

 regular or two-lipped, two of the lobes forming the upper 

 lip, which is sometimes beaklike, and three lobes forming 

 the lower lip; the stamens on the corolla and alternate with 

 its lobes, two or four in number, two long and two short, 

 and sometimes also a fifth stamen which often has no 

 anther, the anthers two-celled; the ovary superior, usually 

 two-celled, the style slender, the stigma sometimes forked; 

 the fruit a pod, splitting from the top into two parts and 

 usually containing many seeds. This is a curious and in- 

 teresting family, its members very dissimilar in appearance, 

 having expressed their individuality in many striking and 

 even fantastic forms. 



There are several kinds of Maurandia, perennial herbs, 

 climbing by their slender twisted leaf-stalks and occa- 

 sionally also by their flower-stalks; the leaves triangular- 

 heartshapcd or halberd-shaped, only the lower ones 

 opposite; the flowers showy, purple, pink, or white; the 

 corolla with two lines or plaits, instead of a palate, which 

 are usually bearded. 



This is a beautiful trailing or climbing 



Snap-dragon Vine vine ^ smooth all Qver> with charming 

 Maurandia antir- . . . 



rhlni flora (Antir- foliage and twining stems, much like 



rhinum mauran- those of a Morning-glory, springing from 



dioides) a thickened, perennial root. The pretty 



Purple or pink fl owers are over an j nc h l ong w j t h a 

 and yellow 



Spring purple or raspberry-pink corolla, with 



Ariz., New Mex. bright yellow blotches on the lower lip, 

 forming an odd and striking combina- 

 tion of color. This blooms all through the spring and 

 summer and may be found growing in the bottom of the 

 Grand Canyon, near the river, where its delicate prettiness 

 is in strange contrast to the dark and forbidding rocks 

 over which it clambers and clothes with a mantle of tender 

 green. 



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