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When the seeds begin to form and the
now useless corolla drops off, the helmet-like appendage on the
top of the calyx enlarges and meets the lower lip, so enclosing
and protecting the tiny nutlets. After their maturity, either the
mouth gapes from dryness, or the appendage drops off altogether,
from the same cause, to release the seeds. Old herb doctors, who
professed to cure hydrophobia with this species, are responsible
for its English misnomer.
Perhaps the most beautiful member of the genus is the SHOWY
SKULLCAP (S. serrata), whose blue corolla, an inch long, has its
narrow upper lip shorter than the spreading lower one. The
flowers are set opposite each other at the end of the smooth
stem, which rises from one to two feet high in the woods
throughout a southerly and westerly range. As several other
skullcaps have distinctly saw-edged leaves, this plant might have
been given a more distinctive adjective, thinks one who did not
have the naming of 200,000 species!
Above dry, sandy soil from New York and Michigan southward the
HAIRY SKULLCAP (S.


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