MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 



buds, so that the effect of the whole flower-head slightly 

 suggests a thistle. This has a strong, pleasant smell like 

 Pennyroyal and is abundant in Yosemite, and elsewhere in 

 the Sierra Nevada foothills. 



There are several kinds of Ramona, abundant in southern 

 California; shrubby plants, with wrinkled leaves and 

 flowers like those of Salvia, except for differences in the 

 filaments; stamens two. They are very important honey- 

 plants, commonly called Sage, and by some botanists 

 considered to be a species of Salvia. 



A low desert shrub, from two to three 

 Desert Ramona . . . 



Ramona incana feet hl g h > varying very much in color. 

 (Audibertia) On the plateau in the Grand Canyon it is 



Blue delicate and unusual in coloring, with pale 



pnng gray, woody stems and branches and 



Southwest ' '; ... / 



small, stirnsh, gray-green, toothless leaves, 



covered with white down. The small flowers are bright 

 blue, projecting from close whorls of variously tinted 

 bracts, and have long stamens, protruding from the 

 corolla-tube, with blue filaments and yellow anthers, and 

 a blue style. The bracts are sometimes lilac, sometimes 

 pale blue, or cream-color, but always form delicate pastelle 

 shades, peculiar yet harmonizing in tone with the vivid 

 blue of the flowers and with the pale foliage. This is 

 strongly aromatic when crushed. In the Mohave Desert it 

 is exceedingly handsome, but the coloring is often less 

 peculiar, as the foliage is not quite so pale as in other 

 places, such as the Grand Canyon, and the flowers vary 

 from blue to lilac or white. It blooms in spring and when 

 its clumps of purple are contrasted with some of the yellow 

 desert flowers, clustered about the feet of the dark Joshua 

 Trees which grow around Hesperia, the effect is very fine. 

 This is a handsome and very decorative 

 Humming-bird pi an t, though rather coarse and sticky, | 

 R^dna grandi- with a stout > bronze-colored stem, which | 

 flora (Audibertia) is woody at base, from two to three feet 

 Red tall, and velvety, wrinkled leaves, from 



Spring ^ three to eight i nc h es i on g, with scalloped) 



edges and white with down on the under 

 side. The flowers are an inch and a half long, with crim- 

 son corollas of various fine shades, which project from the 

 crowded whorls of broad, bronze or purplish bracts, 

 438 



