[Sidenote: =Yawning Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon breviflòrus_
=Flesh-color
Summer
California=]
A bushy plant, from two to five feet high, with many smooth, slender
branches, terminating in long loose clusters of flowers. The leaves
are smooth, rather dark green, the lower ones sharply toothed, and the
flowers are three-quarters of an inch long; the corolla flesh-color,
tipped with pink, with some purple lines on the lower lip, and some
fine white hairs on the upper; the buds yellow, tipped with dark red.
These flowers are too dull in color to be effective, but they are
sweet-smelling and have ridiculous faces with widely yawning mouths.
This is quite common in Yosemite, forming large clumps on open rocky
slopes. Indians use the tough stems for making baskets.
[Sidenote: =Scarlet Pentstemon=
_Pentstèmon Tórreyi_
=Red
Summer
Arizona=]
Exceedingly handsome, with smooth, pale green stems, two feet or more
tall, and smooth, rather bluish-green leaves, with slightly rippled
edges. The corolla is an inch and a quarter long, vivid scarlet, paler
inside, strongly two-lipped, with long, conspicuous stamens, with pale
yellow anthers, the style remaining on the tip of the capsule like a
long purple thread. This makes splendid clumps of gorgeous color and is
common on the rim of the Grand Canyon.
There are a number of kinds of Collinsia, natives of North America,
with the leaves opposite or in whorls; the flowers single or in whorls;
the calyx five-cleft; the corolla irregular, with a short tube and
two-lipped; the upper lip two-cleft and more or less erect, the lower
lip larger and three-lobed, the side lobes spreading or drooping, the
middle lobe keel-like and folded together and enclosing the two pairs
of stamens and the threadlike style, which has a small round-top or
two-lobed stigma. The fifth stamen is represented by a minute gland
on the upper side of the corolla tube near the base. The form of the
flowers somewhat suggests those of the Pea Family. If we pull the lower
lip apart we find the odd little crevice in which the stamens are
concealed.
[Illustration: Scarlet Penstemon--P. Torreyi.