Distribution - Uneven throughout United States and the British
Possessions.
By the helmet-like appendage on the upper lip of the calyx, which
to the imaginative mind of Linnaeus suggested Scutellum (a little
dish), which children delight to spring open for a view of the
four tiny seeds attached at the base when in fruit, one knows
this to be a member of the skullcap tribe, a widely scattered
genus of blue and violet two-lipped flowers, some small to the
point of insignificance, like the present species, others showy
enough for the garden, but all rich in nectar, and eagerly sought
by bees. The wide middle lobe of the lower lip forms a convenient
platform on which to alight; the stamens in the roof of a newly
opened blossom dust the back of the visitor as he explores the
nectary; and as the stamens of an older flower wither when they
have shed their pollen, and the style then rises to occupy their
position, it follows that, in flying from the top of one spike of
flowers to the bottom of another, where the older ones are, the
visitor, for whom the whole scheme of color, form, and
arrangement was planned, deposits on the sticky top of the style
some of the pollen he has brought with him and so
cross-fertilizes the flower.
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