Annual or perennial bitter herbs, some species shrubby. Flowers blue to violet, in terminal or axillary bracted mostly secund spike-like racemes, or solitary or 2-3 together in the axils. Calyx campanulate, gibbous, 2- lipped, the lips entire, the upper one with a crest or protuberance upon its back and often deciduous in fruit, the lower one persistent. Corolla much exserted, recurved-ascending, dilated above into the throat, glabrous within, the limb 2-lipped; upper lip arched, entire or emarginate; lower lip spreading or deflexed, its lateral lobes small and somewhat connected with the upper, its middle lobe broad, sometimes emarginate, the margins mostly recurved. Stamens 4, didynamous, all anther-bearing, ascending under the upper lip, the upper pair somewhat the shorter, their anthers 2-celled, ciliate; anthers of the lower pair of stamens 1-celled, also ciliate. Style unequally 2-cleft at the apex; ovary deeply 4-parted. Nutlets subglobose or depressed, papillose or tuberculate, borne on a short or elongated gynobase. [Latin, a dish, from the appendage to the fruiting calyx.]

About 100 species of wide geographic distribution. Besides the following, some 15 others occur in the southern and western parts of North America, all known as Skullcap, or Helmet-flower. Type species: Scutellaria peregrlna L.

* Nutlets wingless, very slightly elevated on the short gynobase. Flowers 3"-5" long, in axillary and sometimes terminal secund racemes.

1. S. lateriflora.

Flowers 6"-15 long, in terminal often panicled racemes. Plant glabrous or very nearly so; leaves broad.

2. S. serrata.

Plants pubescent, puberulent or pilose.

Leaves all except the floral crenate or dentate, broad. Canescent, not glandular; corolla canescent.

3. S. incana.

Densely glandular-pubescent; corolla puberulent.

4. S. cordifolia.

Pubescent below, glandular above; corolla nearly glabrous.

5. S. pilosa.

Leaves all except the lowest entire, narrow.

6. S. integrifoha.

Flowers solitary in the axils or sometimes also in terminal bracted racemes. Perennial from a thick woody root.

7. S.. resinosa.

Fibrous-rooted; perennial by rootstocks or stolons. Flowers 2"-4" long. Flowers 8"-13" long.

8. S. parvula.

Minutely and densely glandular-pubescent, resiniferous.

9. S. Brittonii.

Densely cinerous-pubescent, pale.

10. S. Bushii.

Glabrous or merely slightly puberulent.

Leaves ovate, slender-petioled, cordate, obtuse.

11. S. saxatilis.

Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, nearly sessile, acute.

12. S. galericulata.

** Nutlets membranous-winged, elevated on the slender gynobase; flowers axillary.

13. S. nervosa.

1. Scutellaria Lateriflora L. Mad-Dog Or Blue Skullcap

Fig. 3575

Scutellaria lateriflora L. Sp. Pl. 598. 1753.

Perennial by slender stolons, glabrous throughout or puberulent above; stem slender, leafy, erect or ascending, commonly branched, 4'-2 1/2° high. Leaves ovate, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, thin, slender-petioled, acute or acuminate at the apex, coarsely dentate-serrate, obtuse, rounded or subcordate at the base, 1'-3' long, the upper gradually smaller, the uppermost sometimes entire; racemes narrow, se-cund, axillary or often also terminal and leafy-bracted, several-many-flowered; flowers 3"-5 " long; calyx short; corolla blue, varying to nearly white, its lips about equal, one-fifth as long as the tube; nutlets borne on a very short gynobase.

In wet places, Newfoundland to Ontario and British Columbia, Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oregon. July-Sept. Blue pimpernel. Side-flowering scull-cap. Madweed. Hoodwort.