Californian Figwort. Californian Bee-Plant
Scrophularia Californica, Cham. Figwort Family
Stems.—Two to five feet high; angled. Leaves.—Oblong-ovate or oblong-triangular; two or more inches long. Flowers.—Small; dull red; three to five lines long; in loose terminal panicles. Calyx.—Five-lobed. Corolla.—Bilabiate; upper lip four-lobed; lower of one lobe. Stamens.—Four perfect; in pairs; and a fifth scalelike, rudimentary one. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style exserted. Hab.—Almost throughout the State.
The tall stems of the Californian figwort are common along roadsides, and become especially rank and luxuriant where the soil has been freshly stirred. The plants are so plentiful and so plebeian in appearance, that we are apt to class them in the category of weeds; but the fact that their little corollas are almost always stored abundantly with honey for the bees, saves them from this reproachful title.
They are cultivated by the keepers of bees. The odd, little dull-red or greenish flowers have a knowing look, which is enhanced by two of the stamens, which project just over the lower rim of the corolla, like the front teeth of some tiny rodent.