[Sidenote: =Bushy Beard-tongue=
_Pentstèmon antirrhinoìdes_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]
This is a rather pretty shrub, about four feet high, with pale woody
branches, purplish twigs, and many, small, rich green leaves. The
flowers have a glossy, bright green calyx and a yellow corolla, which
is three-quarters of an inch long, streaked with dull-red outside and
slightly hairy, the sterile stamen hairy and yellow.
[Sidenote: =Variable Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon confértus_
=Yellow, blue, purple
Summer
Northwest and Cal.=]
This has a smooth stem and smooth, toothless leaves, but is very
variable both in form and color, for the typical plant, from Oregon
and the Rocky Mountains, has yellow flowers, but in Yosemite the
variety _caerùleo-purpùreus_ always has blue or purple flowers, but
the plants vary in general appearance. In good soil, such as the floor
of the Valley, the stem is sometimes two feet tall and the flowers are
about half an inch long, grouped in whorls along the stem, but at high
altitudes the plant shrinks to a few inches in height.
[Sidenote: =Cardinal Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon Párryi_
=Scarlet
Spring
Arizona=]
These wands of flaming scarlet are conspicuous along the trails in
the Grand Canyon and are exceedingly beautiful, very graceful in form
and vivid in color. The smooth, purplish, somewhat leafy stems, from
one and a half to two feet tall, spring from a clump of rather small
leaves, which are toothless, smooth, and rather light green in color.
The flowers are three-quarters of an inch long, the corolla with five
rounded lobes and very slightly two-lipped, and look something like
Scarlet Bugler, but are smaller and more delicate, and are sometimes
mistaken for Cardinal Flowers by people from the East.
[Illustration: Penstemon Parryi.]
[Illustration: Bushy Beard-tongue--P. antirrhinoides.
Variable Penstemon--P. confertus. var. caeruleo-purpureus.