Scarlet Paint Brush—Castilleja pinetorum.
There are a good many kinds of Stemodia, widely distributed, only two in the United States; the corolla blue or purplish and two-lipped; the stamens four, not protruding.
Stemodia
Stemòdia durantifòlia
Blue
Spring
Southwest, etc.
This is a rather pretty plant, which is quite effective when growing in quantities. The stem is hairy and sticky, from a foot to a foot and a half tall, with hairy leaves, which have a few sharp teeth. The flowers are three-eighths of an inch long, with sticky-hairy calyxes and bright purplish-blue corollas, white and hairy in the throat. This has a slightly unpleasant, aromatic smell and grows in moist spots, often in mountain canyons near streams, as far east as Texas and also in the tropics.
There are many kinds of Linaria, most abundant in the Old World; herbs; the upper leaves alternate, the lower opposite, usually toothless; the corolla like Antirrhinum, but with a spur; the stamens four, not protruding.
Toad Flax
Linària Canadénsis
Blue, lilac
Spring, summer
West, etc.
A slender plant, from six to eighteen inches tall and smooth all over, with branching stems, dark green leaves, and pretty little flowers, delicately scented, from a quarter to half an inch long, with bright purplish-blue or pale lilac corollas, veined with purple. This is found in dry soil across the continent and sometimes grows in such quantities around San Diego as to form blue patches in the landscape.
There are many kinds of Veronica; ours are rather low herbs, though some are trees in the tropics, widely distributed, living in meadows and moist places; flowers small, usually blue or white, never yellow; calyx with four divisions, rarely five; corolla wheel-shaped, with a very short tube and four, rarely five, lobes, the lower one narrower than the others; stamens two, sticking out at each side of the base of the upper lobe; anthers blunt, with slender filaments; ovary two-celled, with a slender style and round-top stigma; capsule more or less flattened, two-lobed or heart-shaped, splitting open, containing few or many seeds. They were named in honor of St. Veronica.
Toad Flax—Linaria Canadensis.
Stemodia—S. durantifolia.