Scarlet Painted-cup; Indian Paint Brush [Cas- 
tilleja coccinea). This singular species is a parasite,— 
that is it fastens its roots upon those of other plants 
and takes their nourishment from them. 
The slender, hollow, reddish, angular and hairy stem 
grows from a tuft of smooth-edged, oblong leaves. The 
stem leaves are rather small and, the upper ones espe¬ 
cially, have the ends three-lobed; those near and sur¬ 
rounding the flowers have their ends scarlet, as though 
they had been dipped in a pot of red paint. The flow¬ 
ers’ corolla is almost concealed in the two-lobed cylin¬ 
drical calyx, the end of which is usually a brilliant 
scarlet. The corolla is irregular, greenish yellow, with 
a narrow upper lip and a three-lobed lower one. They 
have, set in the upper lip, four unequal stamens and a 
long pistil. 
The Scarlet Painted-cup is found in low sandy ground 
from Mass, to Manitoba and southwards. 
105 
