FIGWORT FAMILY 



SCROPHULARIACEAE 



HEDGE HYSSOP 



Gratiola <virginiana L. 



The Hedge Hyssop is an annual in wet or muddy open places 

 from Quebec to British Columbia and south to Florida, Texas 

 and California. It often comes up in great abundance along the 



border of a wet field, and it 

 may be found in bloom any 

 time from May to October. 

 The plant grows 3-12 

 inches erect and becomes 

 widely branched. The stem 

 is usually glandular sticky, at 

 least near the top, and bears 

 sessile leaves which are nar- 

 rowed at both ends, slightly^ 

 toothed and smooth or nearly 

 so. 



The flowers are axillary 

 and the peduncles are shorter, 

 or at least not longer, than 

 the leaves. At the end ot the 

 peduncle are 2 bracts as long 

 as the calyx. The calyx is 

 about half as long as the 

 corolla and deeply 5-parted, 

 the segments being narrow 

 and slightly unequal. The 

 corolla is irregular, with a 

 cylindrical yellowish tube and a short white, slightly 2-lipped 

 limb. There are only 1 perfect stamens, with threadlike filaments, 

 but sometimes rudiments of 2 others occur. The style also is 

 threadlike and the stigma is slightly 2-lobed. The fruit is a capsule 

 containing numerous seeds marked by a network of lines. 



Much less commonly will be found the Round-fruited Hedge 

 Hyssop, Gratiola sphaerocarpa Ell., which flowers in wet places from 

 April to June. The stems are stout, thickened at the base and bearing 

 numerous opposite leaves which are sessile, oblong-oval, toothed 

 and strongly 3-veined. The yellowish white Howers are a trifle more 

 than one-halt inch long and have no sterile filaments. The globular 

 capsule is one-quarter inch in diameter. 



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