Good Families 249 
our common toad-flax and our pretty purple 
gerardia give little idea of those splendid per- 
sonages the pentstemons, so famous a genus 
in the West. In Arizona the red pent- 
stemons are among the handsomest flowers, 
while no one who has ever been a-botanising 
in the valleys of Southern California will for- 
get the azure species. The genus appears still 
more abundant in the Rocky Mountains. 
Collinsia is a charming Figwort and mimulus 
another. With us the monkey-flower is blue 
while in Arizona and California there is a 
brilliant red species and several yellow ones, 
and in the Sierras a species that is pink; 
but all speedily declare themselves monkey- 
flowers by their common resemblance. Per- 
haps the castilleia is the most brilliant member 
of the family with the most extended range. 
Through all the Western mountains and in 
Mexico it may be seen, glowing like a live 
coal on granite domes or lava peaks—many 
species, but one form. 
Crowfoot again is a good American family, 
with its buttercups, anemones, and colum- 
bines reaching from Atlantic to Pacific; Violet, 
one of the most dainty and charming of all, 
and everywhere clannish; Lily, a family of 
beautiful species all about the garden and of 
