[Sidenote: =Common Yellow Monkey-flower=
_Mímulus Langsdórfii_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
Southwest, Utah, etc.=]
There are several varieties of this common and attractive plant, some
tall and robust, others very short. The stems are smooth, not sticky,
thickish and pale, sometimes branching, about a foot tall, and the
leaves are from one to three inches long, smooth, or slightly downy,
especially on the under side of the upper leaves, and usually bright
green, the veins prominent on the back, the upper leaves without
leaf-stalks and more or less clasping, the lower ones with leaf-stalks
varying in length. The flowers are from three-quarters of an inch to
two inches long, clear bright yellow, the throat nearly closed and
hairy, usually with some dark red dots between the hairy ridges on the
lower lip. This grows in wet places in the mountains and in canyons,
is widely distributed in the West, and has now strayed as far east as
Connecticut.
[Sidenote: =Musk-plant=
_Mímulus moschàtus_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
West, etc.=]
This plant is more or less hairy and seems to be wet all over with
slimy dew and smells of musk. When the stems are cut and put in water
a slimy sort of mucilage drips from them. It is about ten inches tall,
with rather pretty yellow flowers, barely an inch long, with some hairs
and reddish specks in the throat. This is widely distributed, in wet
places, from Ontario westward.
There are numerous kinds of Orthocarpus, many of them Californian,
difficult to distinguish. Like Castilleja, their upper leaves often
pass into colored bracts and the calyx is colored, but the corolla is
not similar, for the upper lip is small and the three-lobed lower lip
is swollen and conspicuous; calyx short, four-cleft; stamens four, two
of them short, enclosed in the upper lip; style long, with a round-top
stigma; leaves without leaf-stalks, usually alternate, often cut into
three to five narrow divisions; fruit an oblong capsule with many
seeds. Perhaps it is called Owl's-clover because, in some kinds, the
flowers look like the faces of owls.
[Illustration: Musk-plant--M. moschatus.