454 



LABIATJE. 



T. laxatum Benth. is a shrub with purple-woolly spikes. — Monte- 

 rey Co. and southward. T. obloxgum Gray has sessile flowers, the 

 corolla hardly surpassing the calyx. — Sierra Nevada at middle 

 altitudes. 



2. SCUTELLARIA L. Skull-cap. 

 Ours perennial herbs, the flowers always solitary and either in 

 axillary pairs or, when the leaves are reduced, forming terminal 

 spikes or racemes. Calyx bilabiate, both lips entire, the upper with 

 a scale-like or crest-like projection on the back, in anthesis campanu- 

 late, after anthesis closed, and in fruit splitting to the base. Corolla 

 with a long-exserted tube naked within; upper lip galeate, entire or 

 barely notched, the lateral lobes of the lower lip more or less attached 

 to it so that it appears 3-lobed, the middle lobe seeming to constitute 

 the whole lower lip. Anthers ciliate-pilose. Upper fork of style 

 short or none. Nutlets rarely wing-margined. Embryo curved; 

 caulicle short, incumbent. (Latin scutella, a dish, on account of the 

 conspicuous protuberance on the fruiting calyx.) 



Rootstocks filiform, bearing tubers; flowers violet-purple. .1. S. tuberosa. 

 Rootstocks not tuber bearing; flowers whitish 2. >'. Californica. 



1. S. tuberosa Benth. Blue Skull-cap. Stems 3 to •"> in. high, 

 from tuberous rootstocks, the tubers oblong, 3 to 8 lines long; herbage 

 pubescent; leaves thin, few-toothed; radical and lower leaves oval, 

 purplish beneath (as also the lower cauline), on petioles as long as the 

 blade; upper cauline ovate, the petioles commonly short; -corolla 

 violet-purple, 7 to 9 lines long; middle lobe of lower lip somewhat 

 spreading, much larger than the galeate upper lip; nutlets muricate. 



Loamy soil of shady woods in the hills or in sandy valleys: Napa 

 Valley; Marin Co.; San Francisco; AVest Berkeley; Alameda; Wal- 

 nut Creek; Mt. Diablo; Loma Prieta; Southern California. Apr.- 

 May. Not reported from the inner North Coast Ranges, nor from 

 the "inner South Coast Ranges south of Mt. Diablo. The var. similis 

 has a very densely-villous calyx. — Pope Valley grade from Calistoga. 



2. S. Californica Gray. Skull-< ap. Stems clustered, com- 

 monly simple, f to 1^ ft. high, from horizontal branching rootstocks; 

 herbage puberulent; leaves J to 1 in. long, oval-ovate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, the lower disposed to be crenate and purplish beneath, the 

 upper narrower and entire, those subtending the flowers much 

 reduced; petioles 1 to 3 lines long; corolla nearly white or slightly 

 yellowish, the throat ampliate-inflated, and the lips not very unequal; 

 lower lip villous-bearded within; nutlets rugulose. 



Open woods and borders of thickets, on hillsides and in ravines: 

 Coast Ranges (Berkeley; Ukiah; Anderson Valley); Sierra Nevada. 

 June. 



S. Bolaxderi Gray and S. angustifolia Pursh are of the Sierra 

 Nevada: the former has oval leaves, little reduced above, sessile by a 

 cordate base and very veiny, and whitish flowers; the latter lias 

 linear or lanceolate entire leaves (or the lowermost broader and serrate) 

 and violet-purple flowers. 



