RED WILD FLOWERS 
spreads in dense patches, and is found from New- 
foundland to Florida, Texas, and Minnesota, and on 
the Pacific Coast. It is naturalized from Europe. 
OSWEGO TEA. AMERICAN BEE BALM. 
MOUNTAIN MINT. FRAGRANT BALM. 
INDIAN’S PLUME 
Monarda didyma. Mint Family. 
Next to the magnificent Cardinal Flower, the Bee 
Balm possesses the most intense red colouring of any 
of our native wild flowers. It does not flaunt its 
large, showy, tousled head in the bright sunshine, 
but elects to illuminate the cool banks of shady wood- 
land streams and secluded nooks in moist thickets, 
where its beauty is reserved to surprise those who 
happen to snoop in such retreats. Although strik- 
ingly handsome and beautiful, it is a rather coarse 
perennial herb, growing two or three feet in height. 
The stout, rough-haired stalk is sharply four-angled 
or square. ‘The thin, aromatic, sharply toothed, dark 
green leaves are oval, or oblong lance-shaped, with a 
rounded or narrowed base and a long, sharp, tapering 
tip. They are set on hairy stems in opposite pairs 
and are plainly veined. The gaping, wide-mouthed; 
deep scarlet, tubular flowers blossom in succeeding 
circles, around a large, round terminal, solitary, dark 
red head, into which they are gathered, and which is 
surrounded with a circle of bright reddish, drooping, 
leafy bracts. The conspicuous, funnel-formed corolla 
is two-lipped. The erect, slender upper lip is arched 
and sharp-pointed. The larger, spreading lower lip 
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