The little tubular flowers are violet-blue in color; the corolla is two-lipped, the upper one having two lobes and the lower one three; the latter is pouch-shaped and extends backward into a very slender spur. Blue Toadflax is commonly found in dry, sandy fields throughout the United States and southern Canada.
(B) Toadflax; Butter-and-eggs (Linaria vulgaris), although an immigrant, has extended its range from the Atlantic to the Pacific and southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The stem is simple and from 6 to 30 inches high. The narrow alternating leaves are grayish-green, covered with a whitish bloom.
The tubular yellow flowers have two-lipped corollas, the upper ones of two lobes and the lower of three, the centre of one which extends into a large sac-like spur and has a protruding, pouting, orange palate that closes the throat of the blossom. This arrangement is designed for the bumblebee, whose weight on the lower lip opens the flower so he can get at the nectar, while it is tightly closed to pilfering ants.
(A) Turtle-head (Chelone glabra). This is a moisture-loving plant found in swamps.
The stem is stout, smooth, and erect, from 1 to 3 feet tall. The leaves are lance-shaped, stemmed, pointed, and toothed. The flowers are clustered in a short spike at the summit of the stem, the corolla is tubular, about an inch in length, and is white, tinged with pink. The upper lip is broad, arched, creased and notched in the middle; the lower lip is three-lobed and wooly-bearded in the throat. Turtle-head blooms from July until September and ranges from Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward.
(B) Pentstemon; Beard-tongue (Pentstemon hirsutus) has a straight, slender wooly stem that grows from 1 to 3 feet high. The leaves are light-green, lance-shaped, rough-edged, or minutely toothed, the upper ones seated oppositely on the stem and the lower ones with short petioles. The small magenta-white flowers are in panicled racemes. The trumpet-shaped corolla has two lobes to the upper lip and three on the lower, the throat nearly closed by a hairy palate on the lower lip. Me. to Wisconsin and southward.
Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens) is a perennial with a smooth, square, hollow stem growing from 1 to 3 feet in height and branching considerably. The leaves, seated oppositely on the stem, are lance-shaped, pointed, and slightly toothed. The flowers are few in number and are on long, slender pedicels from the axils of the upper leaves. They open one or two at a time. The pale-purple flowers have two large lips, the upper divided into two lobes and the lower one into three, all broad and wavy. Four white stamens and a pistil nearly fill the throat, at the mouth of which are two bright orange-yellow spots.
A small store of nectar is secreted in the base of the flower tube. The double-yellow palate serves to close the entrance to the tube so that small useless insects may not be allowed to partake of the sweets within. When, however, the burly bumblebee alights upon the lower lip, his weight causes it to droop and allow easy access to its meagre supply of nectar. Monkey Flower is found in wet places from N. B. to Manitoba and southward.