[Illustration: FLAME ACANTHUS]
Leaves opposite; calyx 4-5-lobed; sepals 5; petals 5, united, sometimes
2-lipped; stamens on tube, 2 or 4 in 2 pairs; fruit a capsule, often
club-shaped, opening elastically.
Flame Acanthus (_Anisacanthus wrightii_) is covered with scarlet flowers
from early summer until frost. It is a low, widely branched shrub, about
2 feet high, found in rocky soil of the mountains of West Texas. The
corollas have a narrow tube and five narrow, spreading lobes which are
nearly equal but somewhat 2-lipped. The two stamens and the style extend
beyond the corolla. The small leaves are ovate-lanceolate in shape and
are 1-2 inches long.
The flame acanthus is an excellent garden shrub for dry regions and has
been known in cultivation for some time. This species is named in honor
of Charles Wright, an early collector of Texas plants and one of the
first teachers in the state. Wright was a Yale graduate who collected
plants in Texas from 1837 to 1852 for Dr. Asa Gray of Harvard
University. He accompanied a baggage train to El Paso in 1849, and in
1851 he joined the Graham Boundary Survey. On both of these trips he
collected many plants not previously known to science.
[Illustration: WILD PETUNIA]
Wild Petunia. Ruellia (_Ruellia nudiflora_) has flowers very much like
those of the cultivated petunia, a member of the potato family. It is a
very common plant in Central and South Texas, growing in open woods or
on rich prairies. It frequently takes possession of lawns and flower
beds.
The plants are erect, 12-16 inches high, and have few branches. The few
leaves are oval, narrowed at the base, wavy-margined, and blunt or
rounded at the apex. The forking flower clusters have one to five
flowers open at the same time. The flowers do not last very long. Leaves
and stem are often marked with red or purple.
The delicate, funnel-shaped corollas have five spreading lobes and are
about two inches long. The four stamens are inclosed in the tube. The
seed-capsules are nearly an inch long and turn brown as they mature.
This ruellia was formerly confused with _Ruellia tuberosa_, a tropical
plant with tuberous roots. The ruellias belong to a large group of
plants with about 200 species most of which are found in tropical South
America. They are named for Jean de la Ruelle, an early French physician
and botanist.
There are several other ruellias widely distributed in the wooded
sections of the state. The hairy ruellia (_Ruellia ciliosa_) is abundant
on the prairies in Texas and the Eastern States. Miss Eaton, in an
article in the _National Geographic_ in 1925, reports that
carpenter-bees use circular pieces of the corolla to plug off their
nesting cells made in tunnels in soft wood. Drummond’s ruellia (_Ruellia
drummondiana_) is found in woods in Central Texas. The flowers are
rather small and are nearly hidden by the leaves.