Cardinal Monkey Flower Print

Mimulus cardinalis Douglas If fortune favors, and you visit the Grand Canyon at the proper season of the year, you will find the brilliant cardinal monkeyflower in full glory at the Indian Gardens. Following down Bright Angel Trail with its many switchbacks and majestic panoramas of the can- yon walls, you come to this comparatively level oasis, where a stream flows from a kindly spring. Here one can appreciate what water means to a dry country. Luxuriant trees and flowers hug the borders of the stream, and the eye can follow its course by the green fringe until the last trickle of water disappears in the ground. The cardinal monkey- flower, a representative of the Figwort Family, is attractive not only on account of the brilliant color of the blossoms, but also because of the lush growth of rich green leaves and stems that form a fitting background for the flowers. Its range is from Mexico to western New Mexico and California, and northward to Oregon. The plant pain