Magenta to Pink 



off the brilliant blossoms among their neat foliage. From Penn- 

 sylvania southward and westward is its range, especially in 

 mountainous regions ; but this plant, too, was long ago trans- 

 planted from Nature's gardens into man's. 



Large patches of the Downy Phlox (P. pilosa) brighten dry 

 prairie land with its pinkish blossoms in late spring. Britton and 

 Brown's botany gives its range as "Ontario to Manitoba, New 

 Jersey, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas." The plant does its best 

 to attain a height of two feet ; usually its flowers are much nearer 

 the ground. Butterflies, the principal visitors of most phloxes, 

 although long-tongued bees and even flies can sip their nectar, are 

 ever seen hovering above them and transfering pollen, although 

 in this species the style is so short pollen must often fall into the 

 tube and self-fertilize the stigma. To protect the flowers from 

 useless crawling visitors, the calices are coated with sticky matter, 

 and the stems are downy. 



Obedient Plant; False Dragonhead; Lion's 



Heart 



{Physostegia l^irginfaiui) Mint family 



F/oraers — Pale magenta, purplish rose, or flesh-colored, often varie- 

 gated with white, i in. long or over, in dense spikes from 4 to 

 8 in. long. Calyx a 5-toothed oblong bell, swollen and remain- 

 ing open in fruit, held up by lance-shaped bracts. Corolla 

 tubular and much enlarged where it divides into 2 lips, the 

 upper lip concave, rounded, entire, the lower lip 3 lobed. 

 Stamens 4, in two pairs under roof of upper lip, the filaments 

 hairy ; i pistil. Stem ; i to 4 ft. high, simple or branched 

 above, leafy. Leaves: Opposite, firm, oblong to oblong- 

 lanceolate, narrowing at base, deeply saw-edged. 



Preferred Habitat — Moist soil. 



F/oioeriiig Season — July — September. 



Distribution — Quebec to the Northwest Territory, southward to the 

 Gulf of Mexico as far west as Texas. 



Bright patches of this curious flower enliven railroad ditches, 

 gutters, moist meadows and brooksides — curious, for it has the 

 peculiarity of remaining in any position in which it is placed. 

 "With one puff a child can easily blow the blossoms to the oppo- 

 site side of the spike, there to stay in meek obedience to his will. 

 " The flowers are made to assume their definite position," says 

 Professor W. W. Bailey in the " Botanical Gazette," "by friction of 

 the pedicels ag;unst the subtending bracts. Remove the bracts, 

 and they at once fall limp." 



Of course the plant has some better reason for this peculiar 



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