
MINT FAMILY. Labiatae. 
There are several kinds of Trichostema, all North 
American; herbs, sometimes shrubby; leaves toothless, or 
with wavy margins; flowers in clusters; calyx usually with 
five unequal lobes; corolla with a long slender tube and 
five oblong lobes nearly alike, forming in bud a roundish 
ball, enclosing the coiled stamens; stamens four, the upper 
pair longer, with very long, blue or purple filaments, 
conspicuously protruding from the corolla, suggesting 
both the Greek name, meaning “hair-like stamens,” and 
the common name, Blue-curls. 
pied “weeny This is shrubby and usually has many 
Pisces stems, from two to four feet high, with 
Trichostéma stifish leaves, dark green on the upper 
_ landtum side, paler and woolly on the under, the 
— margins rolled back, and beautiful flower- 
Summer, autumn : : 
California clusters, which are sometimes a foot long. 
The bright blue corolla is nearly an inch 
long, with a border shaped like a violet, the smaller 
buds are pink, and the purple stamens and style are 
two inches long and very conspicuous. The calyxes, 
stems, and buds are all covered with fuzzy, pink wool, 
forming a most unusual and beautiful color scheme, 
giving a changeable almost iridescent effect of mauve 
and pink, in remarkable contrast to the brilliant blue 
of the flowers. This grows on rocky hills in southern 
California, is pleasantly aromatic and used medicinally by 
Spanish-Californians. T. lanceolatum is called Camphor 
Weed, because of its strong odor, like camphor but 
exceedingly unpleasant. It grows on dry plains and low 
hills in the. Northwest and is an important bee-plant, 
blooming in summer and autumn, and is also called 
Vinegar Weed. 
There are a few kinds of Agastache, all North American, 
perennial herbs, mostly tall and coarse; leaves toothed, 
with leaf-stalks; flowers small, in a terminal spike, with 
bracts; calyx bell-shaped, with five teeth and slightly two- 
lipped; corolla with a two-lobed, erect, upper lip, the lower 
lip spreading and three-lobed, the middle lobe broader and 
scalloped; stamens four, all with anthers, the upper pair 
longer; nutlets smooth. The Greek name means “many 
spikes.” 
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