
MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 
This is common and varies in a 
Common Hedge we aah 
Nettle ance, being often a coarse-looking weed, 
Slachys bullata but sometimes the flowers are pretty. 
Pink, purple The rough, hairy stem is about a foot tall, 
Spring, summer 
Washi; Oreg., Gel: the wrinkled leaves are soft and more or 
less hairy, and the flowers are about half 
an inch long, usually pale purplish-pink or purple, streaked 
and specked with deeper color, but are sometimes bright 
pink and then the long clusters are quite effective, growing 
in the road-side hedges. The plant is aromatic when 
erushed. 
' There are many kinds of Scutellaria, widely distributed; 
bitter herbs, some shrubby, with blue or lilac flowers; the 
calyx with two lips, the upper one with a protuberance on 
its back; the corolla smooth inside, the upper lip arched, 
sometimes notched, the lower lip more or less three-lobed; 
the stamens four, under the lip, all with anthers, the upper 
pair hairy. The curious helmet-shaped calyx, in which the 
seeds are generally enclosed at maturity, suggests the 
common names, Skullcap and Helmet-flower. 
A pleasing plant, from six inches to 
Skull : : 
RES over a foot tall, not aromatic, with almost. 
angustifolia smooth leaves, most of them toothless. 
Blue The flowers are pretty, though not striking,. 
Spring, summer 
Cal., Oreg., Wash. in pairs from the angles of the leaves, 
with a purplish-blue corolla, nearly an 
inch long, with a white tube, the lower lip woolly inside. 
The calyx is curiously shaped and after the flower drops 
off resembles a tiny green bonnet. When these little 
calyxes are pinched from the sides they open their mouths 
and show the seeds inside. This is quite common through- 
out the Sierras. S. antirrhinoides is similar, growing in 
Utah and the Northwest. S. Califérnica has cream-white 
flowers, less than an inch long, the lower lip hairy inside, 
and downy leaves, narrow at base, the lower leaves pur- 
plish on the under side and more or less toothed, the upper 
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