FIQWORT FAMILY. Scrophulariaceae. 



This is an odd-looking plant, from one 



t0 tW feet tal1 ' Whi h SeemS Unable to 

 decide whether or not it is a vine, for the 



strictum pedicels of the flowers are exceedingly 



Blue slender and twist like tendrils and by their 



Spring ^ means the plant clings to its neighbors and 



California . .. . , 



raises its weak stems from the ground, or, 

 if it finds no support, it stands almost erect and waves its 

 tendrils aimlessly in the air. It is smooth all over, with 

 dark green leaves and pretty, bright purplish-blue flowers, 

 about half an inch long, with a pale, hairy palate, which 

 almost closes the throat. This grows in the South, near 

 the sea. A . v&gans is similar and is common farther north 

 in California, growing on -dry open wooded hills or in 

 canyons of the Coast Ranges, blooming in summer and 

 autumn. 



There are many kinds of Castilleja, almost always 

 perennials, usually parasitic on the roots of other plants, 

 usually handsome and striking, the conspicuous feature 

 being the large leafy bracts, colored like flowers, which 

 adorn the upper part of the stem. They usually have 

 several stems, springing from woody roots; leaves alternate, 

 without leaf-stalks, green below and gradually merging 

 above into colored bracts; flowers crowded in terminal 

 clusters, mixed with bracts; calyx tubular, flattened, mor 

 or less cleft in front or behind, or on both sides, the lobes 

 sometimes two- toothed, colored like the bracts, enclosin 

 the tube of the corolla ; corolla less conspicuous and dulle 

 in color than the calyx, tubular, two-lipped, the lower li 

 short and very small, not inflated, with three small teeth 

 the upper lip long and beaklike, enclosing the foui 

 stamens and single threadlike style; stigma cap-shaped o 

 two-lobed; anther-sacs unequally attached to the filament, 

 one by its middle and the other hanging by its tip; capsu] 

 egg-shaped or oblong, splitting open, containing man 

 seeds. These gaudy plants are well named Indian Pain 

 Brush, for the flower-cluster and leaf-tips look as if the 

 had been dipped in color. Red Feather is also good bu 

 Painted Cup is rather poor, as there is nothing cup-lik 

 about the flower. They were named for Castillejo, 

 Spanish botanist. 



470 



