108 
PLANTS OF YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 
lipped calyx. It is a slender, nearly smooth plant, usually 1 or 2 
feet high. The leaves are ovate or lance-shaped, with a heart-shaped 
base, and are 1 or 2 inches long. All but the uppermost are toothed. 
The flowers are blue and have four stamens. The mint odor is 
lacking. 
Beebalm ( Monarda menthaefolia) .-—This plant grows 1 to 2 feet 
high, and the stems are usually tinged with red or purple. Tho < 
leaves are ovate or lance-shaped, petioled and somewhat toothed. 
The purple or bluish flowers are- 
in terminal heads surrounded by 
leaflike bracts. There are only two 
stamens to a flower. 
American wild mint ( Mentha can¬ 
adensis). —This is a more or less 
hairy perennial with a strong mint 
odor. It usually grows along 
ditches or in wet places. The 
ovate or lance-shaped leaves are 
sharply toothed and the bluish 
or whitish flowers are in sessile 
whorls in. nearly all the leaf-axils 
except the uppermost. 
Spearmint ( Mentha spicata) is 
smooth and has the flowers in termi¬ 
nal spikes. 
Mentha rubella has also been 
reported as occurring in the park. 
Dragonhead (Dracocephalum par- 
viflorum) .—A rather stout, coarse 
plant, 8 to 30 inches high, and 
Figure 85.—Seifheai. Blue or purple, somewhat hairy. The lance-shaped 
Photograph by a. r. Sweetser. or 0 p| 0n g leaves are more or less 
cut-toothed. The bluish flowers are numerous and are borne in a 
terminal spikelike cluster with leafy bracts. 
Seifheai ( Prunella vulgaris). —The slender stems are 4 to 12 inches 
high, and the leaves are oblong or ovate and toothed. The lower 
ones are petioled and the upper ones sessile. The blue, purple, or 
violet flowers are in dense, headlike spikes with conspicuous bracts. 
There are four stamens, and they are peculiar in having forked 
filaments, one point of the fork bearing the anther. 
POTATO FAMILY (SOLANACEAE) 
An extremely important family because it contains such important 
economic plants as the potato, tomato, and tobacco, as well as a 
