ADDISONIA az 
(Plate 174) 
DRACOCEPHALUM SPECIOSUM 
Showy Obedient Plant 
Native of the northern Mississippi Valley 
Family LAMIACEAE Mint Family 
Dracocephalum speciosum Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. pl. 93. 1825. 
Physostegia virginiana Benth. Monog. Labiat. 504, in part. 1834. 
Physostegia formosior Tanell, Bull. Leeds Herb. 2:7. 1908 
Dracocephalum virginianum Britt. & Brown, Ill. Fl. ed. 2. 3: 116, in part. 1913. 
While the mint family contains many attractive plants, most of 
the native species of the eastern and central states have flowers of 
rather small size. The chief exceptions are the horse mints, of the 
genus Monarda, of which most are conspicuous and some exceed- 
ingly showy, and the interesting obedient plant illustrated in our 
plate, with its several closely allied species. In the north central 
states and Missouri Valley, the obedient plant is a common but 
not abundant denizen of the woods and thickets of rich, damp, 
alluvial soil along streams, seldom occurring in large patches, but 
rather scattered individuals and small colonies. Growing in 
habitats often not easily accessible and opening its pink-purple 
flowers in midsummer when the weather is hottest and mosquitoes 
most troublesome, the obedient plant is by no means as well known 
to many lovers of wild flowers as it should be. Neither has it 
become common in cultivation, although it grows freely in any rich 
soil, either in the open or in half shade, and blossoms there even 
better than in its native woods. Our illustration was prepared 
from a plant in cultivation in the New York Botanical Garden. 
This species is offered for sale by some dealers in hardy perennials 
under the name Physostegia virginiana. This name rightfully 
belongs to a different plant, properly known as Dracocephalum 
virginianum. Although our species has been in cultivation for a 
century and was recognized as distinct in 1825, it has escaped 
further botanical scrutiny until recently. When the writer intended 
to describe it as new in 1906 he found that Mr. G. V. Nash had 
already assigned it a name. Before the latter was formally pub- 
lished, the name Physostegia formosior was given toit. It remained 
for Mr. Nash to show that it had already a name of long standing 
by which it is here designated. 
