| 
MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 
buds, so that the effect of the whole flower-head slightly 
suggests a thistle. This has a strong, pleasant smell like 
Pennyroyal and is abundant in Yosemite, and elsewhere in 
the Sierra Nevada foothills. 
There are several kinds of Ramona, abundant in southern 
California; shrubby plants, with wrinkled leaves and 
flowers like those of Salvia, except for differences in the 
filaments; stamens two. They are very important honey- 
plants, commonly called Sage, and by some botanists 
considered to be a species of Salvia. 
A low desert shrub, from two to three 
Desert Ramona. : ‘ - 
Ramona incana cet high, varying very much in color. 
(A udibertia) On the plateau in the Grand Canyon it is 
Blue delicate and unusual in coloring, with pale 
Spring 
gray, woody stems and branches and 
small, stifish, gray-green, toothless leaves, 
covered with white down. The small flowers are bright 
blue, projecting from close whorls of variously tinted 
bracts, and have long stamens, protruding from the 
corolla-tube, with blue filaments and yellow anthers, and 
a blue style. The bracts are sometimes lilac, sometimes 
pale blue, or cream-color, but always form delicate pastelle 
shades, peculiar yet harmonizing in tone with the vivid 
blue of the flowers and with the pale foliage. This is 
strongly aromatic when crushed. In the Mohave Desert it 
is exceedingly handsome, but the coloring is often less 
peculiar, as the foliage is not quite so pale as in other 
places, such as the Grand Canyon, and the flowers vary 
from blue to lilac or white. It blooms in spring and when 
its clumps of purple are contrasted with some of the yellow 
desert flowers, clustered about the feet of the dark Joshua 
Trees which grow around Hesperia, the effect is very fine. 
This is a handsome and very decorative 
plant, though rather coarse and sticky, 
Sage sae : 
Ramona grandi- With a stout, bronze-colored stem, which 
flora (Audibertia) is woody at base, from two to three feet 
Red tall, and velvety, wrinkled leaves, from 
ee three to eight inches long, with scalloped 
edges and white with down on the under 
side. The flowers are an inch and a half long, with crim- 
son corollas of various fine shades, which project from the 
crowded whorls of broad, bronze or purplish bracts, 
438 
Southwest 
Humming-bird 
ae 
