SCROPHULARIACEAE 



FIGWORT FAMILY 



BLUE-EYED MARY 



Coll'in.fia ^'erna Nutt. 



Blue-eyed Mary is one of the most beautiful and in some 

 places one of the most abundant of all our spring flowers. It is 

 found in moist woods and thickets from western New York and 

 Ontario to Wisconsin, south to 

 Pennsylvania, Kentucky and 

 Kansas, but occurs only locally 

 in this state at least. 



This is a biennial or annual 

 and its rather weak, slender 

 stems are 6-24 inches long. The 

 leaves are thin, the lower pe- 

 tioled, those along the middle 

 sessile and toothed, and the 

 upper ones narrow and usually 

 entire. 



The long-peduncled flowers, 

 blooming from April to June, 

 are both axillary and terminal, 

 about 6 in a whorl. They are 

 about one-half inch long and 

 more than twice exceed the 

 bell-shaped 5-lobed calyx. The 

 corolla has a short tube and 2 

 lips, of which the upper is 

 2-cleft and white, whereas the 

 lower is 3-lobed and blue or 

 rarely purple. There are 4 

 stamens, in pairs, and the 

 pistil has a long threadlike 



style. The fruit is a globose capsule, practically one-quarter inch 

 in diameter and shorter than the calyx lobes, which contains a 

 relatively small number of rather large seeds. Many flowers and 

 fruits are produced on each plant so that the total number of 

 seeds may be very large. 



The Violet or Narrow-leaved CoUinsia, Collinsia violacea Nutt., 

 is a quite similar species found in rich soil from southern Illinois to 

 Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. Its upper leaves are lanceolate and the 

 corolla is violet. The globose capsule is shorter than the lanceolate 

 acute lobes of the 5-parted bell-shaped calyx. 



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