[Sidenote: =Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon Wrìghtii_
=Pink, purple
Spring
Arizona=]
This is very much like the last in every way, except the color of
its flowers. The leaves are smooth and thickish, bluish-green, with
a "bloom," the lower ones with a few irregular, blunt teeth, or with
wavy margins, and the flowers, which are the same shape and size as
the last, are deep, bright pink, with a magenta line on each lobe and
some white hairs on the lower lip. The filaments are purple, with
whitish anthers, and the fifth stamen resembles a tiny brush, with
yellow bristles on the upper side and pointing into the throat. The
whole effect of the graceful flower-cluster is bright, beautiful, and
conspicuous, growing among the rocks, on hillsides and in canyons.
[Sidenote: =Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon laètus_
=Blue, purple
Summer
California=]
This is very beautiful and varied in color and is the commonest kind in
Yosemite, from one to two feet high, with roughish, toothless leaves
and several slender, erect, somewhat hairy branches, ending in long
loose clusters of flowers. The corollas are an inch long, and vary from
deep bright blue through all shades of violet to deep pink, with two
white ridges in the throat, and with two white anthers visible and two
purple ones hidden in the throat. The flowers' faces have a quaint,
wide-awake expression. This grows on dry rocky slopes and is often
mistaken for _P. heterophýllus_, which is rather common in open places
in the Coast Ranges. _P. linarioìdes_, blooming in late summer at the
Grand Canyon, is somewhat similar, but the flowers are smaller and more
delicate, and the leaves are smooth, small, and narrow.
[Sidenote: =Scarlet Bugler=
_Pentstèmon Èatoni_
=Red
Spring
Ariz., Utah=]
Very beautiful, from two to three feet high; with purplish stems,
smooth leaves, and flowers an inch long, with a bright scarlet,
funnel-shaped corolla, not much two-lipped, the stamens not protruding.
These graceful wands of vivid color are conspicuous in the Grand
Canyon. _P. centranthifòlius_, common in California, is similar, the
corolla less two-lipped, and has very smooth, thickish leaves. _P.
Bridgésii_, found in Yosemite, is similar, but the corolla is decidedly
two-lipped.
[Illustration: Penstemon--P. laetus.