LARGE-FLOWERED PHACELIA.
Phacelia grandiflora, Gray. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.
Coarse, glandular-viscid plants; one to three feet high. Leaves.—Round-ovate; irregularly toothed; sometimes three or four inches long. Flowers.—Lavender to white; variously streaked and veined with purple. Corolla.—Rotate; two inches across; without scalelike appendages in the throat. Filaments.—Long; purple. Anthers large; versatile. Style two-cleft. (See Phacelia.) Hab.—From Santa Barbara to San Diego.
This is the largest-flowered of all our Phacelias. Its tall stems are abundantly covered above with the fine-looking blossoms. These are very attractive to the uninitiated, who usually rushes forward in breathless haste to possess himself of these new-found treasures and is rarely satisfied with less than a large bunch of them. But woe lies in wait for him. The innumerable glands, covering the whole plant, readily yield up their viscid fluid, which in a few moments turns everything with which it comes in contact to a deep red-brown, like iron-rust. If he escape with ruined clothing, and hands the color of a red Indian, he will have come off well—for the plant poisons some people.
Another species—P. viscida, Torr.—found in about the same range as the above, resembles it closely. It is a foot or so high, branching from the base, and has blue flowers, with purple or white centers, and only half the size of the above.