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‹Better GutenbergThe Wild Flowers of CaliforniaBaby-Eyes. Blue-Veined Nemophila · 262 of 344Contents›

The Wild Flowers of California

by Mary Elizabeth Parsons

262 of 344 · Contents · Download EPUB

Baby-Eyes. Blue-Veined Nemophila

Nemophila Intermedia, Bioletti. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family

Leaves.—With petioles somewhat widened at base and ciliate; the upper all opposite. Corolla.—Nine to twelve lines wide; light blue to white; distinctly blue-veined or more or less sown with purple dots. Scales of the corolla long, narrow, hairy, with expanded tips extending nearly to the sinuses. Ovary.—Rounded; with twelve to twenty-four ovules. (Otherwise as N. insignis.) Syn.—Nemophila Menziesii, Hook. and Arn. Hab.—Rather widespread.

BLUE-EYED GRASS—Sisyrinchium bellum.

This beautiful Nemophila is a more fragile flower than its sister, the baby-blue-eyes. Its delicate corolla is usually white in the center, blending to azure-blue upon the rim, and dotted and veined with the same. At its best, it is an inch across. It affects the borders of moist woodlands, rarely venturing far out into the openings. There it nestles amid the tender herbage, often producing its ethereal flowers in such profusion that it seems as though bits of the sky had fallen to earth. In the south these blossoms do not seem so truly at home—for they are never so large nor so fine.

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