[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Climbing Nemophila=
_Nemóphila aurìta_
=Purple
Summer
California=]
This is a straggling plant, with pretty delicate flowers, which suggest
some sort of Nightshade. The stems are pale, square, juicy and very
brittle, from one to three feet long, and the leaves are bright green
and most of them are alternate, with leafstalks which are winged and
clasping at base. The backs of the leaves, and the stems and calyxes,
are covered with hooked bristles, which enable the plant to climb over
its neighbors and give it the feeling of Bed-straw to the touch. The
flowers are nearly an inch across, with purple corollas, shading to
white in the center and paler outside, with purple scales in the throat
and purple stamens. This is rather coarser than most Nemophilas and
grows in light shade on hillsides.
There are several kinds of Conanthus, low hairy herbs, with alternate,
toothless leaves. The calyx and corolla are without appendages; the
stamens are not protruding, and are unequal in length and unequally
inserted in the tube of the corolla; the style is two-lobed and the
capsule is roundish and contains from ten to twenty, smooth seeds.
[Sidenote: =Conanthus=
_Conánthus aretioìdes_
=Pink
Spring
Idaho, Nev., Ariz.=]
This is a pretty little desert plant, spreading its branches flat on
the ground and bearing tufts of grayish-green, very hairy foliage and a
number of charming little flowers, which are three-eighths of an inch
across, with very hairy calyxes and bright purplish-pink corollas, with
a white and yellow "eye" and a long, slender, yellow tube, which is
slightly hairy on the outside. The styles and anthers are of various
lengths in different plants. These gay little flowers look very pretty
on the dreary mesas around Reno and suggest some sort of Gilia.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Conanthus aretioides.