[Illustration: SLENDER DRAGON-HEAD BRAZOS MINT]
Slender Dragon-Head or Lion’s Heart (_Physostegia intermedia_) has spikes of delicate lavender flowers. The slender stems, 1-3 ft. high, grow from perennial roots in moist soil on prairies from Texas and Louisiana to Missouri and Kentucky from April to July. The physostegias are rapidly growing in favor as garden flowers, as different species will produce blooms throughout the season, if the flowering spikes are cut and not allowed to seed.
Brazos Mint (_Brazoria scutellarioides_) is a lovely little annual found on the plains of Central Texas. The plants are usually less than a foot high and seldom branched, but the dense spikes of lavender flowers make it quite conspicuous during favorable seasons. Although the name indicates a resemblance to the skullcap, it might be mistaken for a dwarf physostegia. The corollas have much the same delicate lavender coloring, but the flaring calyx more closely resembles that of the Texas salvia. It is also called twin-flower, wild lilac, and honey plant.
_Brazoria truncata_, with larger and paler flowers, is very abundant in sandy soil in Central Texas, being especially common in Gonzales County. This plant was first collected near the Brazos River, a fact commemorated in the scientific name of “Brazoria.”
[Illustration: HENBIT PRAIRIE PENNYROYAL]
Henbit. Dead Nettle (_Lamium amplexicaule_) is a troublesome weed on lawns everywhere in the state and in most of the United States. It is a winter annual introduced from Europe and Asia. The flowers often begin to bloom in December and continue until March or April. The stems branch from the base, and the flowers grow in stalkless clusters with the upper leaves.
Prairie Pennyroyal. Lemon Mint. Mexican Tea (_Hedeoma drummondii_) is a low perennial plant characterized by the lemon-like odor of the foliage, the narrow, tubular lavender corollas, and the bulging finely-ribbed tubular calyx. The flowers and leaves are about half an inch long. The low, bushy clumps grow on rocky plains and hillsides throughout Texas, the flowers blooming during the late spring and summer. A tea made from the foliage, either fresh or dried, is considered of value for its soothing effect. A few leaves in iced tea add a piquant flavor. The name is from the Greek and means “sweet smell.”