[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Phacelia=
_Phacèlia Fremóntii_
=Purple
Spring
Southwest and Utah=]
A charming little desert plant, four or five inches high, with one or
more, purplish, branching stems, springing from a pretty cluster of
thickish, dull green root-leaves. The flowers are half an inch across,
with sticky, hairy calyxes and buds and bright purple corollas, with
bright yellow throats, from which the stamens do not protrude. These
little flowers look very gay and pretty against the desert sand.
[Sidenote: =Phacelia=
_Phacèlia lineàris_
=Purple
Spring, summer
Northwest and Utah=]
This is a delicate and pretty plant, in spite of its hairy foliage,
from six inches to a foot high, with a hairy stem, purplish and
somewhat branching, and alternate leaves, which are sometimes
deeply cleft, usually have no leaf-stalks and are hairy and light
yellowish-green in color. The flowers are pretty, grouped in rather
long clusters, and are each about half an inch across, with a hairy
calyx and a corolla delicately tinted with various shades of clear
lilac and blue, shading to white in the center, with long narrow
appendages in the throat between the stamens, which are long and
conspicuous, giving a feathery appearance to the cluster. The anthers
are dark purple and mature before the stigma, and the buds are pink and
white. This grows on dry hillsides, often under sage-brush.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Phacelia linearis.