A small family, distributed from the southern United States to Chili;
hairy herbs or low shrubs, without stipules; leaves alternate; two
bracts on the flower-stalk; flowers purplish, irregular, perfect;
sepals four or five, usually large, the outer one commonly wider than
the others; petals usually five, smaller than the sepals, the three
upper ones with long claws, often united by their claws, sometimes the
middle one of the three lacking, the two lower ones reduced to mere
fleshy glands and not resembling petals; stamens three or four, united
at least at base; ovary superior, with a slender style; fruit spiny,
seed one.
[Sidenote: =Crimson-beak=
_Kramèria Gràyi_
=Purplish-pink
Spring
Arizona=]
A desert shrub, with a pleasant smell like balsam, two to four feet
high, with gray, woody stems, abruptly branching, armed with long,
brown and gray thorns, and clothed with very small, silvery-gray
leaves, downy and thickish. The flowers are curious in shape and color,
with five, large, purplish-pink sepals and five, small petals, the two
lower ones minute and reduced to glands. The pistil is dark red, the
three stamens have green filaments and red anthers, the ovary is downy
and prickly, and the downy buds are pale pink.