The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903. (Wikipedia)

It is also a pretty plant with flowers borne singly on long, square stalks with oval shaped leaves.

I usually see it with orange flowers growing along roadsides:

It is a species of Eurasia escaped from cultivation in North America. It does well in saline habitats.

There are several patches of it along the roadside at East Point Park by the eastern Bluffs.

Other botany:

NATURE POETRY

High noon in August! over all the land
The very air is palpitant with heat;
While stretching far, the fields of ripening wheat
Unrippled lie as plains of yellow sand!                 – Henry Sylvester Cornwell (1831–1886)

Miles Hearn