SCARLET BUGLER.
Pentstemon centranthifolius, Benth. Figwort Family.
Very glaucous and smooth. Stem.—One to three feet high. Leaves.—Ovate-lanceolate; mostly sessile; the upper cordate-clasping; thick. Panicles.—Narrow; a foot or two long. Corolla.—Bright scarlet; an inch or more long; hardly bilabiate. (See Pentstemon.) Hab.—From Monterey to Los Angeles.
The tall spires of the scarlet bugler are such familiar sights along southern roadsides and sandy washes that people almost forget the enthusiastic admiration their bright beauty first elicited. It is said that acres of mountain lands are sometimes a solid mass of vermilion during the blooming season of this lovely plant.
The panicle is often two feet long, with its string of scarlet horns. The individual flowers bear quite a likeness to those of the honeysuckle, common in Eastern gardens, and by those who encounter the plant for the first time, it is usually spoken of as "honeysuckle." The blossoms are sometimes yellow near San Bernardino.
P. Bridgesii, Gray, met more frequently in the Yosemite than elsewhere, though it occurs in the Sierras from the Yosemite southward, is a very similar plant to the above. But it differs in having its corolla quite distinctly bilabiate, though of the same general tubular, funnel-form shape.