Family

Figwort.

Colour

Yellow with vermilion floral leaves.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

Eastern and middle states.

Time of Bloom

June.

Flowers; terminal; growing in a short spike. Calyx: four-cleft; yellow. Corolla: tubular; two-lipped; the upper lip long, erect; the under one shorter and three-lobed. Stamens: four, unequal. Pistil; one. Leaves: those of the stem unequally divided into three, pointed lobes; those near the flower cut into three bract-like lobes that are vermilion in colour and appear like the blossoms. Stem; one foot high; hairy.

"Now if thou art a poet, tell me not That these bright chalices were tinted thus To hold the dew for fairies, when they meet On moonlight evenings in the hazel bowers, And dance till they are thirsty."

Bryant.

It would seem as though the painted cup had been conscious of the insignificance of its pale yellow bloom and so had called upon the loyalty of its leaves for assistance. They then responded nobly by forming about them a scarlet cloak which enables the flower to appear one of the most brilliant of all. It blooms in such profusion that a sandy meadow where it grows suggests that it is traversed by some vagrant, wandering flame.