BLEEDING-HEART.
Dicentra formosa, DC. Bleeding-heart Family.
Leaves.—Ternately dissected, with toothed leaflets. Scapes.—Six inches to two feet high. Flowers.—Rose-colored to pale pink, sometimes almost white or yellowish; nodding. (Floral structure as in D. chrysantha.) Hab.—The Coast Ranges and Sierras, from Middle California to British Columbia.
The bleeding-heart is a rather shy flower, and never makes itself common enough to dull our enthusiasm for it. It fully merits its specific name, for it is a plant of elegant form throughout, from its shapely divided leaves to its graceful clusters of pendent hearts. It is found in the woods of our Coast Ranges, but may be seen to best advantage when nestling amid the lush grasses of Sierra meadows.