_Pedicularis canadensis_
_Flowers_--Greenish yellow and purplish red, in a short, dense spike.
Calyx oblique, tubular, cleft on lower side, and with 2 or 3 scallops on
upper; corolla about 3/4 in. long, 2-lipped, the upper lip arched,
concave, the lower 3-lobed; 4 stamens in pairs; 1 pistil. _Stems:_
Clustered, simple, hairy, 6 to 18 in. high. _Leaves:_ Mostly tufted,
oblong lance-shaped in outline, and pinnately lobed.
_Preferred Habitat_--Dry, open woods and thickets.
_Flowering Season_--April-June.
_Distribution_--Nova Scotia to Florida, westward to Manitoba, Colorado,
and Kansas.
When the Italians wish to extol some one they say, “He has more virtues
than betony,” alluding, of course, to the European species, _Betonica
officinalis_, a plant that was worn about the neck and cultivated in
cemeteries during the Middle Ages as a charm against evil spirits; and
prepared into plasters, ointments, syrups, and oils, was supposed to
cure every ill that flesh is heir to. Our commonest American species
fulfils its mission in beautifying roadside banks, and dry open woods
and copses with thick, short spikes of bright flowers, that rise above
large rosettes of coarse, hairy, fern-like foliage. At first, these
flowers, beloved of bumblebees, are all greenish yellow; but as the
spike lengthens with increased bloom, the arched, upper lip of the
blossom becomes dark purplish red, the lower one remains pale yellow,
and the throat turns reddish, while some of the beefsteak color often
creeps into stems and leaves as well.
Farmers once believed that after their sheep fed on the foliage of
this group of plants a skin disease, produced by a certain tiny louse
(_pediculus_), would attack them--hence our innocent betony’s
repellent name.