188 CHELONE GILABRA. —TURTLE-HEAD. 
Linnaeus is usually credited with the name, but he tells us 
he adopted it from Dillenius, an author who flourished just 
before his own time. Tournefort, however, seems to be the 
original author, who wrote about 1700, and who, according to 
Milne, named it Che/one, “from the Greek, meaning a tortoise, 
from the figure of its seeds, which are round, compressed, and 
begirt with a membraneous rim or border.” Clayton, and others 
of his time, regarded it as one of the Digztals or Fox-gloves; 
though Gronovius, the editor of Clayton’s work, refers it cor- 
rectly to Tournefort’s Chelone. 
Lindley and Moore, already quoted, say, comparing it with 
Pentstemon, “the form of the corolla in this genus is very dis- 
tinct, the broad-keeled upper lip and scarcely open mouth giving 
it some resemblance to the head of a tortoise or turtle, to which 
feature are due both the scientific appellation and the popular 
American name of ‘Turtle-head.’” Our American botanists do 
not seem quite sure about this. Professor Wood, after giving 
the Greek name, simply says, “from the appearance of the 
flower,” and Dr. Gray, though he translates the Greek to “tor- 
toise,” adds, “the corolla resembling in shape the head of a rep- 
tile,’ which may include many things besides a tortoise. The 
peculiar-looking seed, as already noted, is the chief distinctive 
mark between Pentstemon and Chelone,and as this must have 
been in mind by the botanist describing it, gives some reason 
for concluding Milne to be right as to the original intention of 
the name. The “American common name” probably came from 
the botanists, for we have rarely heard those who live among the 
flower give it any name. 
Dr. Gray says it grows “from Newfoundland to the Saskatch- 
ewan and south to Florida.” It is across the Mississippi, how- 
ever, in Arkansas, though it has not been found in Kansas or 
Nebraska, It bears garden culture well. Among the common 
names given in books are “Snake-head,” “Shell-flower,” and 
“ Balmony.” 
