There are a good many kinds of Mertensia, natives of the northern
hemisphere. They are handsome perennials, never very hairy and
sometimes perfectly smooth all over, with leafy stems and broad
leaves, sometimes dotted, the lower ones with leaf-stalks. The pretty,
nodding flowers are in clusters and have a purple, blue, or white
corolla, often turning pink, more or less trumpet-shaped, the lobes
not spreading much, the throat open, with or without crests; the ovary
deeply four-lobed, with a threadlike style and one stigma; the nutlets
wrinkled. These plants are all commonly called Lungwort.
[Sidenote: =Languid Lady, Lungwort=
_Merténsia Sibírica_
=Blue
Summer
Northwest=]
A very attractive and graceful mountain plant, with pretty flowers and
fine foliage. The stems are hollow and usually smooth, from one to five
feet tall, and the leaves are rather thin and soft in texture, usually
smooth, with a "bloom." The flowers are in handsome loose clusters,
most of them drooping, and have a corolla over half an inch long, which
is a beautiful shade of bright light blue, often tinged with pink,
with white crests in the throat, and the style is long and protruding.
The buds are bright pink, contrasting well with the blue flowers.
This grows near streams, in the higher mountains. It is often called
Mountain Bluebell, but that name belongs to Campanula and is therefore
misleading. (This has recently been "separated" into several species.)
[Sidenote: =Lungwort=
_Merténsia brevístyla_
=Blue
Spring, summer
Utah, Col., Wyo.=]
This is an attractive plant and looks a good deal like a Forget-me-not.
It grows from four to ten inches tall and has dull bluish-green leaves,
which are downy on the upper side and smooth on the under, and graceful
clusters of pretty little flowers. The buds are pinkish-purple and the
flowers are small, with hairy calyxes and brilliant sky-blue corollas,
the stamens and style not protruding. This grows in mountain canyons,
up to an altitude of seven thousand feet.
[Illustration: Mertensia--M. brevistyla.