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False Dragon-Head

Physostegia Virginiana. Mint Family.

Stems.--Square; upright; wand-like. Leaves.--Opposite; sessile; narrow; usually toothed. Flowers.--Showy; rose-pink; purple-veined; crowded interminal leafless spikes. Calyx.--Five-toothed. Corolla.--One inch long; funnel-form, with an inflated throat; two-lipped. Upper lip erect; lower lip small, spreading, three-parted, its middle lobe the largest, broad and notched. Stamens.--Four. Pistil.--One, with two-lobed style. Ovary.--Deeply four-lobed. By the roadside, and in wet meadows, during the late summer or even early in the fall, we find the pink clusters of the false dragon-head. These blossoms are likely to arouse the suspicion that the plant is related to the turtle-head, but the square stem and four-lobed ovary soon persuade us of its kinship with the members of the Mint Family.