There are a few kinds of Micromeria; trailing perennials; flowers
small; calyx tubular, with five teeth; corolla two-lipped, with a
straight tube; stamens four, all with anthers, not protruding. The
Greek name means "small."
[Sidenote: =Yerba Buena, Tea-vine=
_Micromèria Chamissónis (M. Douglasii)_
=Lilac, white
Spring, summer
Cal., Oreg., Wash.=]
An attractive little plant, resembling the little eastern
Gill-over-the-ground, with slender trailing stems, slightly downy
foliage, and lilac or whitish flowers, about a quarter of an inch long.
The calyx and corolla are hairy on the outside; the corolla has an
erect upper lip, sometimes notched, and a spreading, three-lobed lower
lip, and the stamens are four, the lower pair shorter. This is common
in shady places near the coast. It has a pleasant aromatic fragrance
and was used medicinally by California Indians, so it was called
"good herb" by the Mission Fathers, and is still used as a tea by
Spanish-Californians, who call it Yerba Buena del Campo, "field herb,"
distinguishing it from Yerba Buena del Poso, "herb of the well," the
garden mint.
There are several kinds of Monardella, fragrant herbs, all western,
chiefly Californian; leaves mostly toothless; flowers small, in
terminal heads, on long flower-stalks, with bracts, which are often
colored; calyx tubular, with five, nearly equal teeth; corolla with
erect upper lip, two-cleft, lower lip with three, nearly equal lobes;
stamens four, protruding, sometimes the lower pair longer.
[Sidenote: =Western Pennyroyal, Mustang Mint=
_Monardélla lanceolàta_
=Lilac
Summer
California=]
An attractive plant, pretty in color and form, with purplish, often
branching stems, from six inches to over two feet high, smooth leaves,
and small bright pinkish-lilac flowers, crowded in terminal heads,
about an inch across, with purplish bracts. The outer ring of flowers
blooms first and surrounds a knob of small green buds, so that the
effect of the whole flower-head slightly suggests a thistle. This has a
strong, pleasant smell like Pennyroyal and is abundant in Yosemite, and
elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
[Illustration: Yerba Buena--Micromeria Chamissonis.