in the White Section.

Described in the Yellow Section:—

Anagallis arvensis—Pimpernel.Flœrkia Douglasii—Meadow-Foam.

Brodiæa lactea—White Brodiæa.Hemizonia luzulæfolia—Tarweed.

Calochortus Weedii—Mariposa Tulip.Hosackia bicolor.

Cuscuta—Dodder.Melilotus alba—White Sweet Clover.

Eriogonum ursinum.Pterospora andromedea—Pine-Drops.

Erysimum grandiflorum—Cream-colored Wallflower.Verbascum Blattaria—Moth-Mullein.

Eschscholtzia Californica—California Poppy.

Described in the Pink Section:—

Apocynum cannabinum—American-Indian Hemp.Phlox Douglasii—Alpine Phlox.

Dodecatheon Clevelandi—Shooting-Stars.Rhus integrifolia—Lemonade-Berry.

Gilia androsacea.Rhus laurina—Sumach.

Lewisia rediviva—Bitter-Root.Silene Gallica.

Oxalis Oregana—Redw'd-Sorrel.Trientalis Europæa—Star-Flower.

Described in the Blue and Purple Section:—

Brodiæa laxa—Ithuriel's Spear.Collinsia bicolor—Collinsia.

Calochortus Catalinæ—Catalina Mariposa Tulip.Delphinium.

Calochortus Maweanus—Cat's-Ears.Fritillaria liliacea—White Fritillary.

Calochortus umbellatus—White Star-Tulip.Iris Douglasiana—Douglas Iris.

Ceanothus divaricatus—Wild Lilac.Iris macrosiphon-Ground Iris.

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus—California Lilac.Polygala cornuta.

Scutellaria Californica—White Skullcap

Trillium sessile—Calif. Trillium.

Described in the Red Section:—

Gilia aggregata—Scarlet Gilia.Aquilegia cœrulea.

Described in the Miscellaneous Section:—

Cephalanthera Oregana—Phantom Orchis.Cypripedium montanum—Mountain Lady's Slipper.

Cypripedium Californicum—California Lady's Slipper.Prosartes Menziesii—Drops of Gold.

TOOTHWORT. PEPPER-ROOT. SPRING-BLOSSOM.

Dentaria Californica, Nutt. Mustard Family.

Roots.—Bearing small tubers. Stems.—Six inches to two feet high. Root-leaves.—Simple and roundish or with three leaflets. Stem-leaves.—Usually with three to five pinnate leaflets, one to three inches long. Flowers.—White to pale rose-color. Sepals and Petals.—Four. Stamens.—Four long and two short. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style simple. Pod.—Slender; twelve to eighteen lines long. Syn.—Cardamine paucisecta, Benth. Hab.—Throughout the Coast Ranges.

What a rapture we always feel over this first blossom of the year! not only for its own dear sake, but for the hopes and promises it holds out, the visions it raises of spring, with flower-covered meadows, running brooks, buds swelling everywhere, bird-songs, and the air rife with perfumes.

It is like the dove sent forth from the ark, this first tentative blossom, this avant courier of the great army of Crucifers, or cross-bearers, so called because their four petals are stretched out like the four arms of a cross.

It is usually in some sheltered wood that we look for this first shy blossom; but once it has proved the trustworthiness of the skies, it is followed by thousands of its companions, who then come out boldly and star the meadows with their pure white constellations.

The Latin name of this genus (from the word dens, a tooth), translated into the vernacular, becomes toothwort, the termination wort signifying merely plant or herb.

It was so named because of the toothed rootstocks of many species.

The little tubers upon the root often have a pungent taste, from which comes one of the other common names—"pepper-root." Various other names have been applied to these flowers, such as "lady's smocks" and "milkmaids."

TOOTHWORT—Dentaria Californica.

ZYGADENE.

Zygadenus Fremonti, Michx. Lily Family.

Bulb.—Dark-coated. Leaves.—Linear; a foot or two long; deeply channeled. Scape.—Three inches to even four feet high. Flowers.—White. Perianth Segments.—Six; strongly nerved; bearing at base yellow glands; inner segments clawed. Stamens.—Six; shorter than the perianth. Ovary.—Three-celled. Styles three; short. Capsule.—Three-beaked. Hab.—Coast Ranges, San Diego to Humboldt County.

The generic name, Zygadenus, is from the Greek, and signifies yoked glands, referring to the glands upon the base of the perianth segments.

We have several species, the most beautiful and showy of which is Z. Fremonti. This is widely distributed, and grows in very different situations. In our central Coast Range its tall stems, with their lovely clusters of white stars, make their appearance upon rocky hill-slopes with warm exposure, in the shelter of the trees, soon after the toothwort has sprinkled the fields with its white bloom. In the south it rears its tall stems upon open mesas, unprotected by the shelter of friendly tree or shrub, and in some localities it makes itself at home in bogs. It is possible that the future may reveal the presence of more than one species.

It has sometimes been called "soap-plant"; but this name more appropriately belongs to Chlorogalum. It somewhat resembles the Star of Bethlehem of Eastern gardens. The fact that it grows in boggy places has given rise to the name of "water-lily" in certain localities; but this ought to be discountenanced, as it bears not the slightest resemblance to the magnificent water-lily of Eastern ponds.

Another species—Z. venenosus, Wats.—is found from Monterey and Mariposa Counties to British Columbia. This may be distinguished from the above by its narrow leaves—only two or three lines wide,—usually folded together, and by its smaller flowers, with perianth segments only two or three lines long; and also by the fact that the stamens equal the segments in length. The bulb is poisonous, and our Northern Indians call it "death camass," while the farmers in the Sierras call it "Lobelia," not because of any resemblance to that plant, but because its poisonous effects are similar to those of the latter. It is fatal to horses, but hogs eat it with impunity, from which it is also known as "hogs' potato." It is found in moist meadows or along stream-banks, in June and July.

ZYGADENE—Zygadenus Fremonti.

POISON-OAK.

Rhus diversiloba, Torr. and Gray. Poison-Oak or Cashew Family.

Shrubs.—Three to fifteen feet high. Leaflets.—One to four inches long. Flowers.—Greenish white; small. Sepals and Petals.—Usually five. Stamens.—As many or twice as many as the petals. Ovary.—One-celled. Styles three: distinct or united. Fruit.—A small, dry, striate, whitish drupe. Hab.—Throughout California.

The presence of the poison-oak in our woods and fields makes these outdoor haunts forbidden pleasures to persons who are susceptible to it. It is closely allied to the poison-ivy of the Eastern States, and very similar in its effects. It is a charming shrub in appearance, with beautiful glossy, shapely leaves; and in early summer, when it turns to many shades of scarlet and purple-bronze, it is especially alluring to the unsuspecting. It is quite diverse in its habit, sometimes appearing as an erect shrub, and again climbing trees or rock surfaces, by means of small aerial rootlets, to a considerable height. Horses eat the leaves without injury; and the honey which the bees distill from its small greenish-white flowers is said to be excellent.

Many low plants seek the shelter of these shrubs, and some of our loveliest flowers, such as Clarkias, Godetias, Collinsias, Brodiæas, and larkspurs, seem to realize that immunity from human marauders is to be had within its safe retreat.

The remedies for oak-poisoning are numerous; and it may not be out of place to mention a few of them here. Different remedies are required by different individuals. Any of the following plants may be made into a tea and used as a wash: Grindelia, manzanita, wild peony, California holly, and Rhamnus Purshiania, or Californica. Hot solutions of soda, Epsom salts, or saltpeter are helpful to many, and the bulb of the soap-root,—Chlorogalum pomeridianum—pounded to a paste and used as a salve, allowing it to dry upon the surface and remain for some hours at least, is considered excellent. In fact, any pure toilet soap may be used in the same manner.

POISON OAK—Rhus diversiloba.

WAKE-ROBIN.

Trillium ovatum, Pursh. Lily Family.

Rootstock.—Thickened. Stem.—Erect; stout; a foot or more high; bearing at summit a whorl of three sessile leaves. Leaves.—Rhomboidal; acuminate; netted-veined; five-nerved; two to six inches long. Flower.—Solitary; pure white, turning to deep rose; peduncle one to three inches long. Sepals.—Three; herbaceous. Petals.—One or two inches long. Stamens.—Six. Ovary.—Three-celled. Stigmas three; sessile. Capsule.—Broadly ovate: six-winged. Hab.—The Coast Ranges, from Santa Cruz to British Columbia.

The wake-robin is in the vanguard of our spring flowers, and a walk into some high, cold cañon while the days are still dark and short will be amply rewarded by the finding of its white and peculiarly pure-looking blossoms standing upon the bank overlooking the streamlet. The blossoms remain unchanged for a time, and then, as they fade, turn to a deep purplish rose-color.

Our wake-robin so closely resembles T. grandiflorum, Salisb., of the Eastern States, that it seems a pity it should have been made into a different species.

BEACH-STRAWBERRY.

Fragaria Chilensis, Ehrhart. Rose Family.

Hab.—The coast, from Alaska to San Francisco and southward.

This beautiful strawberry is found growing near the seashore, where its large, delicious berries are often buried beneath the shifting sand, becoming bleached in color. It sometimes covers acres with its thick, shining, dark-green leaves, among which are sprinkled its large pure-white flowers, an inch or more across.

The wood-strawberry—F. Californica—is very common in the Coast Ranges; but for the most part it is dry and flavorless.

WAKE-ROBIN--Trillium ovatum

MANZANITA. BEARBERRY.

Arctostaphylos manzanita, Parry. Heath Family.

Shrubs three to twenty-five feet high, with purple-brown bark. Leaves.—Pale. Flowers.—White or pinkish; in crowded clusters. Corolla.—Four or five lines long; campanulate. Stamens.—Ten; filaments dilated and bearded at base; anthers two-celled, opening terminally, each cell furnished with a long downward-pointing horn. Ovary.—Globose; five to ten-celled. Style simple. Fruit.—Six lines in diameter, containing several bony nutlets. Syn.—Arctostaphylos pungens, HBK. Hab.—Throughout the State.

Of all our shrubs, the manzanita is the most beautiful and the best known. Sometimes as early as Christmas it may be found in full bloom, when its dense crown of pale foliage, surmounting the rich purple-brown stems, is thickly sown with the little clusters of fragrant waxen bells. After the blossoms have passed away, the shrubs put forth numerous brilliant scarlet or crimson shoots, which at a little distance look like a strange and entirely new kind of blossoming. The manzanita is closely allied to the madroño, and resembles it in many ways, particularly in the annual peeling of its rich red bark and in the form of its flowers.

The Greek generic name, translated into English, becomes "bearberry." The pretty Spanish name—from manzana, apple, and the diminutive, ita,—was bestowed by the early Spanish-Californians, who recognized the resemblance of the fruit to tiny apples.

We have a dozen or more species of Arctostaphylos, but A. manzanita is the commonest of them all. It varies greatly in size and habit. In localities most favorable it becomes a large, erect shrub, with many clustered trunks, while in the Sierras it finds but a precarious footing among the granite rocks, often covering their surfaces with its small tortuous, stiff branches. The leaves, by a twisting of their stalks, assume a vertical position on the branches, a habit which enables many plants of dry regions to avoid unnecessary evaporation.

MANZANITA—Arctostaphylos manzanita.

The largest manzanita known is upon the estate of Mr. Tiburcio Parrott, in St. Helena, Napa County, California. It is thirty-five feet high, with a spread of branches equal to its height, while its trunk measures eleven and a half feet in circumference at the ground, soon dividing into large branches. It is a veritable patriarch, and has doubtless seen many centuries. According to an interesting account in "Garden and Forest," it once had a narrow escape from the ax of a woodman. A gentleman who was a lover of trees, happening to pass, paid the woodman two dollars to spare its life.

Years ago no traveler from the East felt that he could return home without a manzanita cane, made from as straight a branch as could be secured.

The berries of this shrub are dry and bony and quite unsatisfactory. They are, however, pleasantly acid, and have been put to several uses. It is said that both brandy and vinegar are made from them, and housewives make quite a good jelly from some species. Bears are fond of the berries, and the Indians eat them, both raw and pounded into a flour, from which mush is made. The leaves made into a tincture or infusion are now an officinal drug, valued in catarrh of the throat or stomach.

From Monterey to San Diego is found A. glauca, Lindl., the great-berried manzanita. It closely resembles the above, but its berries are three fourths of an inch in diameter.

Of the same range as the last is A. bicolor, Gray, whose leaves are of a rich, shining green above and white and woolly beneath. Its berries are the size of a pea, yellowish at first, and turning red later.

CALIFORNIAN SAXIFRAGE.

Saxifraga Californica, Greene. Saxifrage Family.

Leaves.—Few; all radical; oval; one to two inches long, on broad petioles six to twelve lines long. Scape.—Six to eighteen inches high. Flowers.—White or rose; four or five lines across. Calyx.—Deeply five-cleft, with reflexed lobes. Petals.—Borne on the calyx. Stamens.—Ten. Ovaries.—Two; partly united. Styles short. Stigmas capitate. Syn.—S. Virginiensis, Michx. Hab.—Throughout the State.

CALIFORNIAN SAXIFRAGE—Saxifraga Californica.

In the rich soil of cool northward slopes, or on many a mossy bank amid the tender young fronds of the maidenhair, may be found the delicate clusters of our little Californian saxifrage. The plants are small, with but a few, perhaps only one or two, oval, rather hairy leaves, lying upon the ground, and a slender red scape upholding the dainty cluster of small white flowers. The tips of the calyx-lobes are usually red, and the wee stamens are pink.

We have several species of saxifrage, most of which are plants of exceeding delicacy and grace, and with small flowers.

MINER'S LETTUCE. INDIAN LETTUCE.

Montia perfoliata, Howell. Purslane Family.

Smooth, succulent herbs. Radical Leaves.—Long-petioled; broadly rhomboidal. Stems.—Simple; six to twelve inches high, having, near the summit, a pair of leaves united around the stem. Flowers.—White. Sepals.—Two. Petals.—Five, minute. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—One-celled Style slender. Stigma three-cleft. Syn.—Claytonia perfoliata, Don. Hab.—Throughout California.

Though our Indian lettuce is closely allied to the Eastern "Spring Beauty," one would never suspect it from its outward appearance and habit. The little flower-racemes look as though they might have pushed their way right through the rather large saucer-like leaf just below them. The succulent leaves and stems are greedily eaten by the Indians, from which it is called "Indian lettuce."

Mr. Powers, of Sheridan, writes that the Placer County Indians have a novel way of preparing their salad. Gathering the stems and leaves, they lay them about the entrances of the nests of certain large red ants. These, swarming out, run all over it. After a time the Indians shake them off, satisfied that the lettuce has a pleasant sour taste equaling that imparted by vinegar. These little plants are said to be excellent when boiled and well seasoned, and they have long been grown in England, where they are highly esteemed for salads.

MINER'S LETTUCE—Montia Perfoliata.

WOOD ANEMONE. WIND-FLOWER.

Anemone quinquefolia, L. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.

Rootstock.—Horizontal. Stem.—Six to fourteen inches high. Leaves.—Radical leaf remote from the stem; trifid; the segments serrate. Involucral leaf not far below the flower; three foliolate. Sepals.—Petaloid; five or six; usually bluish outside. Petals.—Wanting. Stamens and Pistils.—Numerous. Akenes.—Two lines long; twelve to twenty. Syn.—Anemone nemorosa, L. Hab.—The Coast Ranges, in moist shade.

The delicate blossoms of the wood anemone might at first be confounded with those of the toothwort by the careless observer, but a moment's reflection will quickly distinguish them. The anemone is always a solitary flower with many stamens, and its petals are of a more delicate texture. It grows upon wooded banks or cool, shaded flats among the redwoods.

There are many quaint traditions as to the origin of its name, and poets have from early times found something ideal of which to sing in these simple spring flowers.

The generic name has the accent upon the third syllable, but, when Anglicized into the common name, the accent falls back upon the second.

OSO-BERRY.

Nuttallia cerasiformis, Torr. and Gray. Rose Family

Deciduous shrubs; two to fifteen feet high. Leaves.—Broadly oblanceolate; two to four inches long; narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers.—White; in short terminal racemes; diœcious; three to eleven lines across. Calyx.—Top-shaped, with five-lobed border. Petals.—Five; inserted with ten of the stamens on the calyx; broadly spatulate. Stamens.—Fifteen. Ovaries.—Five. Styles short. Fruit.—Blue-black, oblong drupes; six to eight lines long. Hab.—Chiefly the Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo to Fraser River.

About the same time that the beautiful leaves of the buckeye are emerging from their wrappings, we notice in the woods a shrub which has just put forth its clusters of bright-green leaves from buds all along its slender twigs. Amid their delicate green hang short clusters of greenish-white flowers. These blossoms have a delicious bitter fragrance, redolent of all the tender memories of the springtime.

WOOD ANEMONE—Anemone quinquefolia.

This shrub is usually mistaken for a wild plum; and the illusion is still further assisted when the little drupes, like miniature plums, begin to ripen and hang in yellow and purple clusters amid the matured leaves.

WILD DATE. SPANISH BAYONET.

Yucca Mohavensis, Sargent. Lily Family.

Trunk.—Usually simple; rarely exceeding fifteen feet high; six or eight inches in diameter; naked, or covered with refracted dead leaves, or clothed to the ground with the living leaves. Leaves.—Linear-lanceolate; one to three feet long; one or two inches wide; rigid; margins at length bearing coarse recurved threads. Flowers.—In short-stemmed or sessile, distaff-shaped panicles, a foot or two long; pedicels eventually drooping, twelve to eighteen lines long. Perianth.—Broadly campanulate. Segments.—Six; thirty lines long; six to twelve wide. Stamens.—Six; six to nine lines long; filaments white, club-shaped. Ovary.—Oblong; white; an inch or two long, including the slender style. Stigmas three. Fruit.—Cylindrical; three or four inches long; pendulous, pulpy. Syn.—Yucca baccata, Torr. Hab.—Southern California, from Monterey to San Diego; coast and inland.

The genus Yucca comprises sixteen or eighteen species, and reaches its greatest development in Northern Mexico. Three species are to be found within our borders, two of which are arborescent, Y. arborescens, and Y. Mohavensis. Considerable confusion has hitherto reigned among the species, but they are now better understood.

They are all valuable to our Indians as basket and textile plants, and are useful to them in many other ways.

Owing to the structure of the flowers, self-fertilization seems impossible, and scientists who have made a study of the subject say that these plants are dependent upon a little white, night-flying moth to perform this office for them. This little creature goes from plant to plant, gathering the pollen, which she rolls up into a ball with her feet. When sufficient has been gathered, she goes to another plant, lays her egg in its ovary, and before leaving ascends to the stigma and actually pushes the pollen into it, seeming to realize that unless she performs this last act, there will be nothing for her progeny to eat. This seems an almost incredible instance of insect intelligence; but it is a well-authenticated fact.

Yucca Mohavensis, commonly called "wild date," or "Spanish bayonet," is more widely distributed within our borders than either of our other species. Its large panicle of overpoweringly fragrant white waxen bells is a striking object wherever seen. On the coast this yucca is often stemless, but in the interior, where it is more abundant, it rises to a considerable height, and culminates upon the Mojave Desert, where the finest specimens are found.

The fruit, which ripens in August and September, turns from green to a tawny yellow, afterward becoming brownish purple, and eventually almost black. This has a sweet, succulent flesh, and, either fresh or dried, is a favorite fruit among the Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that this is one of the most useful plants to the Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. They cut the stems into slices, beat them into a pulp, and mix them with the water in washing, as a substitute for soap.

The leaves are parched in ashes, to make them pliable, and are afterward soaked in water and pounded with a wooden mallet. The fibers thus liberated are long, strong, and durable, and lend themselves admirably to the weaving of the gayly decorated horse-blankets made by the tribes of Southern California. They also make from it ropes, twine, nets, hats, hair-brushes, shoes, mattresses, baskets, etc.

FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL.

Smilacina sessilifolia, Nutt. Lily Family.

Rootstock.—Slender; branching; creeping; scars not conspicuous. Stem.—About a foot long (sometimes two); usually zigzag above; leafy. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; lanceolate; two to six inches long; shining above; spreading in a horizontal plane. Flowers.—White; few; in a simple terminal raceme, on pedicels two to seven lines long. Perianth.—Of six, distinct, spreading segments. Segments.—One and one half to four lines long; lanceolate. Stamens.—Six; half the length of the segments. Ovary.—Three-celled. Style short. Berry.—Nearly black; three to five lines through. Hab.—Monterey to British Columbia.

The False Solomon's Seal is one of the prettiest plants in our woods in March, and in many places it almost hides the ground from view. It has a graceful, drooping habit that shows its handsome, spreading leaves to full advantage, and its few delicate little white blossoms are a fitting termination to the pretty sprays.

S. amplexicaulis, Nutt., is a very handsome, decorative plant, with fine, tall, leafy stem, and large, feathery panicle of tiny white flowers. The broadened white filaments are the most conspicuous part of these blossoms, which are less than a line long. The berries are light-colored, dotted with red or purple.

MIST-MAIDENS.

Romanzoffia Sitchensis, Bongard. Baby-eyes or Water leaf Family.

Leaves.—Six to eighteen lines across; smooth. Flowers.—White, pink, or purple. Calyx.—Deeply five-parted. Corolla.—Funnel-form; five-lobed; four lines long. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Two-celled. Hab.—Coast Ranges, from Santa Cruz northward.

In appearance these delicate herbs resemble the saxifrages, and they affect much the same sort of places, decking mossy banks and stream borders with their beautiful scalloped leaves and small white flowers.

The genus was named in honor of Nicholas Romanzoff, a Russian nobleman, who, by his munificence, enabled some noted botanists to visit this coast early in the century.

MIST-MAIDENS—Romanzoffia Sitchensis.

STRAWBERRY CACTUS.

CALIFORNIAN FISH-HOOK CACTUS. LLAVINA.

Mamillaria Goodridgii, Scheer. Cactus Family.

Oval, fleshy, leafless plants; mostly single, though sometimes clustered; three to five inches long; covered with prominences or tubercles. Tubercles.—Each bearing a flat rosette of short, whitish spines, with an erect, dark, fish-hook-like central one. Flowers.—Small; greenish-white. Outer Sepals.—Fringed. Petals.—About eight; awned. Stamens.—Numerous. Ovary.—One-celled. Stigmas five or six. Fruit.—Scarlet; an inch long. Hab.—San Diego and neighboring islands, and southward.

The dry hill-slopes about San Diego afford the most interesting field accessible to civilization, i.e. within our boundaries, for the gathering and study of the cacti.

Nestling close to the ground, usually under some shrub or vine, you will find the little fish-hook cactus, one of the prettiest and most interesting of them all. Its oval form bristles with the little dark hooks, each of which emanates from a flat star of whitish spines.

The flowers may be found in April or May, but it is more noticeable when in fruit. The handsome scarlet berries, like old-fashioned coral eardrops, protruding from among the thorns, are easily picked out, and they very naturally find their way to one's mouth. Nor is one disappointed in the expectation raised by their brilliant exterior—for the flavor is delicious, though I cannot say it resembles that of the strawberry, as some aver. To me it is more like a fine tart apple.

THIMBLE-BERRY.

Rubus Nutkanus, Mocino. Rose Family.

Stems.—Three to eight feet high. Leaves.—Palmately and nearly equally five-lobed; cordate at base; four to twelve inches broad; the lobes acute; densely tomentose beneath. Flowers.—Few; clustered; white, sometimes pale rose; an inch or two across, with rounded petals. Stamens and Pistils.—Numerous. Fruit.—Large; red; "like an inverted saucer;" sweet and rather dry. Hab.—Monterey to Alaska.

The thimble-berry is unequaled for the canopy of pure light-green foliage which it spreads in our woods. It would take the clearest of water-colors to portray its color and texture. The large white flowers, with their crumpled petals, are deliciously fragrant, but with us are never followed by an edible fruit, probably owing to the dryness of our summer climate. In Oregon and northward the berries are said to be luscious. There the bushes grow in the fir forests, where they seem most at home.

Rubus spectabilis, Pursh., the salmon-berry, has leaves with three leaflets, and large solitary, rose-colored flowers, which are followed by a salmon-colored berry. These shrubs are exceedingly beautiful when in full bloom.

COMMON WILD PEA.

Lathyrus vestitus, Nutt. Pea Family.

Stems.—One to ten feet high; slender; not winged. Leaves.— Alternate; with small semi-sagittate stipules; pinnate, with four to six pairs of leaflets; tendril-bearing at the summit. Leaflets.—Ovate-oblong to linear; six to twelve lines long; acute. Flowers.—White, pale rose or violet; seven to ten lines long. Lower Calyx-teeth.—About equaling the tube. Corolla.—Papilionaceous; the standard veined with purple in the center. Stamens.—Nine united; one free. Ovary.—Flattened; pubescent. Style hairy down the inner side. (See Leguminosæ.) Hab.—Sonoma County to San Diego.

The genus Lathyrus, which contains the beautiful sweet pea of the garden, affords us several handsome wild species, but most of them are difficult of determination, and many of them are as yet much confused. This genus is quite closely related to Vicia, but, in general, the leaflets are broader, the flowers are larger, and the style is hairy down the inner side as well as at the tip.

Lathyrus vestitus is the common wild pea of the south. It is quite plentiful, and clambers over and under shrubs, hanging out its occasional clusters of rather large pale flowers.

L. Torreyi, Gray, found from Santa Clara County to Napa in dry woods, is a slender plant, having from one to three small white or pinkish flowers. It is remarkable for and easily distinguished by its very fragrant foliage.

WILD CUCUMBER. BIG-ROOT. CHILICOTHE.

Echinocystis fabacea, Naudin. Gourd Family.

Tendril-bearing vines, ten to thirty feet long. Root.—Enormous; woody. Leaves.—Palmately five- to seven-lobed; three to six inches broad. Flowers.—Yellowish white; monœcious. Calyx-tube.—Campanulate; teeth small or none. Corolla.—Five- to seven-lobed; three to six lines across. Staminate Flowers.—Five to twenty in racemes; their stamens two and a half, with short connate filaments and somewhat horizontal anthers. Pistillate Flowers.—Solitary; from the same axils as the racemes. Ovary.—Two- to four-celled. Fruit.—Two inches long; prickly. Syn.—Megarrhiza Californica, Torr. Hab.—Near the coast, from San Diego to Point Reyes.

The wild cucumber is one of our most graceful native vines. It drapes many an unsightly stump, or clambers up into shrubs, embowering them with its pretty foliage. Seeing its rather delicate ivy-like habit above ground, one would never dream that it came from a root as large as a man's body, buried deep in the earth. From this root, it has received two of its common names, "big-root" and "man-in-the-ground." Sometimes this may be seen upon the ocean beach or rolling about in the breakers, where it has been liberated by the wearing away of the cliffs. It is intensely bitter.

The seeds have a very interesting method of germinating. The two large radical leaves remain underground, sending up the terminal shoot only. They are so tender and succulent that they would be eaten forthwith, if they showed themselves above the ground. An oil expressed from the roasted seeds has been used by the Indians to promote the growth of the hair.

Authorities have differed about the classification of these plants, and they have been variously called Megarrhiza, Micrampelis, and Echinocystis, the latter being latest approved. We have several species. One common in the South is E. macrocarpa, Greene. This has a large oval, prickly ball, four inches or so long. When mature, this opens at the top, splitting into several segments, which gradually roll downward, like the petals of a beautiful white lily, showing their pure-white inner surfaces and leaving exposed the four cells in the center, with lacelike walls, in which nestle the large, handsome dark seeds. These seeds are often beautifully mottled and colored, and in the early days served the Spanish-Californian children for marbles.

WILD CUCUMBER—Echinocystis fabacea.

WHITE LAYIA. WHITE DAISY.

Layia glandulosa, Hook. and Arn. Composite Family.

Stems.—Six to twelve inches high; loosely branching; hairy; often reddish. Leaves.—Sessile; linear; the upper all small and entire; the lower often lanceolate and incised pinnatifid. Heads.—Usually large and showy. Ray-flowers.—Bright, pure white, sometimes rose-color; eight to thirteen; three-lobed; an inch or less long; six lines wide. Disk-flowers.—Golden yellow; five-toothed. Each scale of the involucre clasping a ray-flower. Hab.—Columbia River to Los Angeles.

These white daisies, as they are commonly called in the south, cover the fields and plains in early spring, jostling one another in friendly proximity and stretching away in an endless perspective. They are of a charming purity, and to me are more attractive than their sisters, the tidy-tips.

They love a sandy soil, and I have seen them flourishing in the disintegrated granite of old river-beds, where the dazzling whiteness of the stones was hardly distinguishable from the blossoms. The involucre is thickly studded with curious little glands, resembling small glass-headed pins.

BED-STRAW. GOOSE-GRASS. CLEAVERS.

Galium Aparine, L. Madder Family.

Climbing by the prickly stem-angles and leaf-margins. Stems.—Weak; one to four feet long. Leaves.—In whorls of six to eight; linear oblanceolate; one inch long. Peduncles.—Elongated; one- to two-flowered. Flowers.—Minute; one line across; greenish-white. Calyx-tube.—Adnate to the ovary; limb obsolete. Corolla.—Mostly four-cleft. Stamens.—Four. Ovary.—Two-lobed, two-celled. Styles two, short. Stigmas, capitate. Fruit.—Two or three lines across, covered with hooked bristles. Hab.—Throughout the State.

All through our moist woodlands, in early spring, the long stems of the bed-straw may be found, running about upon the ground or entangled amid the stems of other plants. The angles of these weak stems and the leaf-margins and midribs are all clothed with small backward-pointing bristles, which make the plants cling to surrounding objects. The flowers are greenish and minute, and are followed by tiny prickly balls.

A cold infusion of this little plant is used as a domestic remedy in cases of fever, where a cooling drink is desired.

The genus has received the common name of "bed-straw," because it was supposed that one of the species, G. verum, filled the manger in which was laid the Infant Jesus. There are a dozen or so species in California.

Very conspicuous all through the south is G. angustifolium, Nutt., often three feet high, sending up very numerous slender, feathery stems from a woody base. This has its small leaves in whorls of four.

MOUNTAIN HEART'S-EASE.

Viola Beckwithii, Torr. and Gray. Violet Family.

Leaves.—Broadly cordate in outline; three-parted; the divisions cleft into linear or oblong segments. Peduncles.—About equaling the leaves. Petals.—Four to seven lines long; very broad; the upper deep purple, the others lilac, bluish, or white, veined with purple, with a yellowish base; the lateral bearded; the lowest emarginate. Stigma.—Bearded at the sides. Capsule.—Obtuse. (Otherwise as V. pedunculata.) Hab.—The Central Sierras.

The poet, with a delicate insight, has made this mountain flower the reminder to the rugged miner of home and scenes far away. But the vision lasts but for a moment only; then, as he brushes away a tear, his uplifted pick—

POP-CORN FLOWER.

WHITE FORGET-ME-NOT. NIEVITAS.

Borage Family.

The wild white forget-me-nots are among our most welcome flowers. Though not showy, taken singly, they often cover the fields, presenting the appearance of a light snowfall, from which fact the Spanish-Californians have bestowed the pretty name "nievitas," the diminutive of nieve, snow.

Their chief charm often lies in their pure, delightful fragrance, which recalls the days of our careless, happy childhood. Children are keen observers of flowers, and are among their most appreciative lovers, and with them these modest, chaste little blossoms are special favorites.

There are many species, and even genera, and their determination is beset with serious difficulties. It requires endless study and patience to disentangle the facts about any one of them. They are comprised under several genera, Krynitzkia, Plagiobothrys, Eritrichium, Piptocalyx, etc. Some have fragrant flowers and some have not. Children of the south call them "pop-corn flowers."

WHITE FORGET-ME-NOT.

WHIPPLEA.

Whipplea modesta, Torr. Saxifrage Family.

Slender, diffuse, hairy undershrubs. Leaves.—Opposite; short-petioled; ovate; toothed or entire; an inch or less long; three-nerved. Flowers.—White; barely three lines across; in small terminal clusters. Calyx.—White; five-cleft. Petals.—Five. Stamens.—Usually ten. Filaments awl-shaped. Ovary.—Three- to five-celled, globose. Styles of the same number. Hab.—Coast Ranges from Monterey to Mendocino County.

Under the redwoods, or in moist cañons in their vicinity, may be found this pretty undershrub trailing over banks or brushwood. In April its exquisite little clusters of pure white flowers, with a pleasant fragrance, make their appearance, and the plants have then been sometimes mistaken for a species of Ceanothus.

WOODLAND STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

Tellima affinis, Bolander. Saxifrage Family.

Stems.—Slender; six to twenty inches high. Root-leaves.—Round-reniform; scalloped; rarely an inch across. Stem-leaves.—Three to five; ternately cleft; variously toothed. Flowers.—White; in a loose raceme; nine lines across. Calyx.—Small; campanulate; five-toothed. Petals.—Five; wedge-shaped, with three acute lobes. Stamens.—Ten. Filaments very short. Ovary.—One-celled. Styles, three, short, stout. Stigmas, capitate. Hab.—Shady places almost throughout the State.

"Star of Bethlehem" is the common name by which many of our children know this fragile flower. Its slender stems rise from many a mossy bank, upbearing their few delicately slashed, pure-white stars, which seem to shed a gentle radiance about them upon the woodland scene.

WHIPPLEA—Whipplea modesta.

WILD BUCKWHEAT.

Eriogonum fasciculatum, Bentham. Buckwheat Family.

Shrubby; very leafy. Leaves.—Alternate; nearly sessile; narrowly oblanceolate; acute; tomentose beneath; glabrous above; three to nine lines long; much fascicled. Flowers.—White or pinkish; in densely crowded compound clusters; several perianths contained in the involucres. Involucres.—Campanulate; five- or six- nerved and toothed; two lines high. Perianth.—Minute; of six nearly equal segments. (See Eriogonum umbellatum.) Hab.—Santa Barbara and southward; east to Arizona.

The wild buckwheat is a characteristic feature of the southern landscape. It is a charming plant when in full bloom, and its feathery clusters of pinkish-white flowers show finely against the warm olive tones of its foliage. It is a very important honey plant, as it yields an exceptionally pure nectar and remains in bloom a long time. Growing near the sea, it is often close-cropped and shorn by the wind, and then it quite closely resembles the Adenostoma, or chamisal.

Another very widely distributed and common species is E. nudum, Dougl. Every one is familiar with its tall, green, naked, rushlike stems, bearing on the ends of the branchlets the small balls of white or pinkish flowers. Its leaves are all radical, smooth green above and densely white-woolly beneath.

SIERRA PLUM. WILD PLUM.

Prunus subcordata, Benth. Rose Family.

Trees or shrubs three to ten feet high, with ash-gray bark and branchlets occasionally spinescent. Leaves.—Short-petioled; ovate; sharply and finely serrate; an inch or two long. Umbels.—Two- to four-flowered. Pedicels three to six lines long. Flowers.—White; six lines across. Fruit.—Red or purple; six to fifteen lines long; fleshy; smooth. (Otherwise as P. ilicifolia.) Hab.—Mostly eastward of the Central Valley, from San Felipe into Oregon.

The wild plum reaches its greatest perfection in the north, where the shrubs are found in extensive groves covering whole mountain slopes.

WILD BUCKWHEAT—Eriogonum fasciculatum.

The flowers, which are produced before the leaves, from March to May, are white, fading to rose-color. By August and September, the bushes are loaded with the handsome fruit, richly mottled with red, yellow, and purple; and these colors are duplicated in the autumn foliage, which in the North becomes very brilliant.

This fruit is excellent for canning, preserving, and making into jelly. Many families make annual pilgrimages to these wild-plum orchards of the mountains and carry away bushels of the fruit; but even then countless tons of it go to waste.

P. demissa, Walpers,—the wild cherry or choke-cherry,—is found upon mountains throughout the State, but less abundantly near the coast. Its small white flowers grow in racemes three or four inches long, and these ripen into the pretty shining black cherries, half an inch in diameter. It often covers acres upon acres of rough land, and commences to bear when but two feet high.

Housewives of our mountain districts make a marmalade of the fruit, which has a peculiarly delicious, tart flavor.

ELLISIA.

Ellisia chrysanthemifolia, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.

More or less hairy. Stems.—Loosely branching; a foot or so high. Leaves.—Mostly opposite; auricled at base; twice- or thrice-parted into many short, small lobes. Flowers.—In loose racemes; white; three lines or so across. Calyx.—Five-cleft; without appendages at the sinuses; almost equaling the corolla. Corolla.—Open-campanulate; having ten minute scales at base within. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—One-celled; globose. Style slender; two-cleft. Hab.—San Francisco to San Diego.

These little plants, with delicately dissected leaves, are common in moist, shaded localities; but, unfortunately, their foliage has a very strong odor, which just escapes being agreeable. Their general aspect is somewhat similar to that of some of the small species of Nemophila; but the lack of appendages upon the calyx reveals their separate identity. It blooms freely from March to June, and is especially abundant southward.

MADROÑO. MADRONE.

Arbutus Menziesii, Pursh. Heath Family.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves.—Alternate; petioled; oblong; entire or serrulate; four inches or so long. Flowers.—White; waxen; in large clusters. Calyx.—Five-cleft; minute; white. Corolla.—Broadly urn-shaped; three lines long; with five minute, recurved teeth. Stamens.—Ten; on the corolla. Filaments dilated; bearded. Anthers two-celled; saccate; opening terminally; furnished with a pair of reflexed horns near the summit. Ovary.—Five-celled. Style rather long. Fruit.—A cluster of scarlet-orange berries, with rough granular coats. Hab.—Puget Sound to Mexico and Texas; specially in the Coast Ranges.

The name "madroño" was applied by the early Spanish-Californians to this tree because of its strong resemblance and close relationship to the Arbutus unido, or strawberry-tree of the Mediterranean countries, which was called madroño in Spain.

Our madroño, though but a large shrub in the south, increases in size northward, and reaches its maximum development in Marin County, where there are some superb specimens of it. One tree upon the shores of Lake Lagunitas measures more than twenty-three feet in circumference and a hundred feet in height, and sends out many large branches, each two or three feet in diameter.

A large part of the forest growth on the northern slopes of Mt. Tamalpais is composed of it; and as it is an evergreen, it forms a mountain wall of delightful and refreshing green the year around. The bark on the younger limbs, which is of a rich Indian red, begins to peel off in thin layers about midsummer, leaving a clear, smooth, greenish-buff surface, and strewing the forest floor with its warm shreds, which mingling with the exquisite tones of its ripened leaves, which have fallen at about the same time, make a carpet equal in beauty of coloring to that under the English beeches. It is thoroughly patrician in all its parts. The leaves which are clustered at the ends of the slender twigs are rich, polished green above, and somewhat paler beneath.

In the spring it puts forth great panicles of small, white, waxen bells, which call the bees to a sybaritic feast, and in the autumn it spreads a no less inviting repast in its great clusters of fine scarlet berries for the blue pigeons who visit it in large flocks.

The wood of the madrone is hard and close-grained, of a light brown, shaded with red, with lighter-colored sap-wood. It is used in the manufacture of furniture, but is particularly valuable for the making of charcoal to be used in the composition of gunpowder. The bark is sometimes used in tanning leather.

WILD WHITE LILAC.

Ceanothus velutinus, Dougl. Buckthorn Family.

Widely branching shrubs, two to six feet or more high. Leaves.—Alternate; petioled; roundish, or broadly ovate; eighteen lines to three inches long; polished, resinous above; somewhat pubescent beneath; strongly three-nerved. Flowers.—White; three lines across; in large, dense, compound clusters four or five inches long and wide. (See Ceanothus for flower structure.) Hab.—Coast Ranges; Columbia River, southward to San Francisco Bay; also eastward to Colorado.

Its ample bright-green, highly varnished leaves and large white flower-clusters make this a very beautiful species of Ceanothus. The foliage is glutinous with a gummy exudation, which has a rather disagreeable odor. Yet the shrub would be very handsome in cultivation.

WHITE NEMOPHILA.

Nemophila atomaria, Fisch. and Mey. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.

Corolla.—Pure white, closely dark-dotted nearly to the edge; an inch or less across; densely hairy within the tube. Scales of the corolla narrow, with long hairs. (Otherwise as N. insignis.) Hab.—Central California.

This delicate Nemophila haunts wet, springy places among the hills, and is at its best in early spring. There are a number of small-flowered forms of Nemophila which have been hitherto referred to N. parviflora, but which the future will probably prove to constitute a number of species.

N. maculata, Benth., found in Middle California and the High Sierras, is a charming form, with large flowers, whose petals bear strong violet blotches at the top.

RATTLE-WEED. LOCO-WEED.

Astragalus leucopsis, Torr. and Gray. Pea Family.

Stems.—A foot or so high. Leaflets.—In many pairs; six lines or more long. Flowers.—Greenish-white; six lines long; in spikelike racemes an inch or two long. Calyx.—With teeth more than half the length of the campanulate-tube. Pod.—Thin; bladdery-inflated; an inch or more long, on a smooth stalk twice or thrice the length of the calyx-tube. (See Astragalus.) Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

These plants are very noticeable and quite pretty, with their pale foliage, symmetrical leaves, and white flowers; but they are dreaded by the farmers of the region of their growth, who aver that they are deadly loco-weeds. It is said that native stock will not touch them; but animals brought from a distance and unacquainted with them, eat them, with dreadful results of loco.

We have numerous species, all rather difficult of determination.

WILD MORNING-GLORY.

Convolvulus luteolus, Gray. Morning-Glory Family.

Stems.—Twining and climbing twenty feet or more. Leaves.—Alternate; sagittate; two inches or so long; smooth. Peduncles.—Several-flowered; axillary, with two small linear-lanceolate bracts a little below the flower. Flowers.—Cream-color or pinkish, sometimes deep rose. Sepals.—Five; without bracts immediately below them. Corolla.—Open funnel-form; eighteen lines long; not lobed or angled. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Globose; two-celled or imperfectly four-celled. Style filiform. Stigmas two. Hab.—Throughout California.

I remember long stretches of mountain road where the wild morning-glory has completely covered the unsightly shrubs charred by a previous year's fire, flinging out its slender stems, lacing and interlacing them in airy festoons, which are covered with the fragile flowers in greatest profusion. In these tangles, the industrious spiders have hung their exquisite geometrical webs, which catch the glittering water-drops in their meshes. When the sun comes out after a dense, cool fog-bath on a summer morning, nothing more charmingly fresh could be imagined than such a scene.

RATTLE-WEED—Astragalus leucopsis.

The common morning-glory of the south—C. occidentalis, Gray—is very similar to the above, but may be distinguished from it by the pair of large, thin bracts immediately below the calyx and enveloping it.

Another very pretty species is C. villosus, Gray. This is widely distributed, but not very common. Its trailing stems and foliage are of a velvety sage-gray throughout, and its small flowers of a yellowish cream-color. The hastate leaves are shapely, and the whole plant is charming when grown away from dust.

The common European bindweed—C. arvensis, L.—is to the farmer a very unwelcome little immigrant. In fields it becomes a serious pest; for the more its roots are disturbed and broken up the better it thrives. But despite its bad character, we cannot help admiring its pretty little white funnels, which lift themselves so debonairly among the prostrate stems and leaves.

In medicine a tincture of the whole plant is valued for several uses.

WOOD-BALM. PITCHER-SAGE.

Sphacele calycina, Benth. Mint Family.

Woody at the base; two to five feet high; hairy or woolly. Leaves.—Two to four inches long. Flowers.—Dull white or purplish; an inch or more long; mostly solitary in the upper axils. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Corolla.—Having a hairy ring at base within. Stamens.—Four, in two pairs. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma two-lobed. Hab.—Dry hills. San Francisco Bay, southward.

The wood-balm is closely allied to the sages, which fact is betrayed by its opposite, wrinkly, sage-scented leaves; but its flowers have quite a different aspect. These are ample and cylindrical, with a five-lobed border, one of the lobes being prolonged into somewhat of a lip.

The generic name is from the Greek word meaning sage; and the specific name, signifying cuplike, refers to the shape of the blossoms.

The dwellers among our southern mountains, with that happy instinct possessed by those who live close to the heart of nature, have aptly named this "pitcher-sage."

PITCHER-SAGE—Sphacele calycina.

After the flowers have passed away, the large inflated, light-green calyxes, densely crowded upon the stems, become quite conspicuous.

YUCCA-PALM. TREE-YUCCA. JOSHUA-TREE.

Yucca arborescens, Trelease. Lily Family.

Scraggly trees; thirty, or forty feet high; with trunks one or two feet in diameter. Leaves.—Eight inches long; crowded; rigid; spine-tipped; serrulate; the older ones reflexed and sun-bleached, the younger ashy-green. Flowers.—In sessile, ovate panicles, terminating the branches. Panicles several inches long. Perianth.—Narrowly campanulate; eighteen to thirty lines long. Fruit.—Two or three inches long. (Otherwise as Y. Mohavensis.) Hab.—Southwestern Utah to the Mojave Desert.

The traveler crossing the Mojave Desert upon the railroad has his curiosity violently aroused by certain fantastic tree forms that whirl by the car windows. These are the curious Joshua-trees of the Mormons, which are called in California tree-yucca or yucca-palm. A writer in "The Land of Sunshine" thus aptly characterizes them: "Weird, twisted, demoniacal, the yuccas remind me of those enchanted forests described by Dante, whose trees were human creatures in torment. In twisted groups or standing isolated, they may readily be imagined specters of the plains."

Mr. Sargent tells us that, though found much to the eastward of our borders, it abounds in the Mojave Desert, where it attains its largest size and forms a belt of gaunt, straggling forest several miles in width along the desert's western rim.

Its flowers appear from March to May, but are not at all attractive, on account of their soiled white color and disagreeable, fetid odor. "The unopened panicles form conspicuous cones eight to ten inches long, covered with closely overlapping white scales, often flushed with purple at the apex."

The seeds are gathered and used by the omnivorous Indians, who grind them into meal, which they eat either raw or cooked as a mush. The wood furnishes an excellent material for paper pulp, and some years ago an English company established a mill at Ravenna, in Soledad Pass, for its manufacture. It is said that several editions of a London journal were printed upon it, but owing to the great cost of its manufacture, the enterprise had to be abandoned.

The light wood is put to many uses now, and in the curio bazaars of the south it plays a conspicuous part, made into many small articles. By sawing round and round the trunk of the tree, thin sheets of considerable size are procured. A sepia reproduction of one of the old missions upon the ivory-tinted ground of one of these combines sentiment and novelty in a very pretty souvenir. Surgeons find these same sheets excellent for splints, as they are unyielding in one direction and pliable in the other; and orchardists wrap them around the bases of their trees to protect them from the gnawing of rabbits.

COMMON ELDER.

Sambucus glauca, Nutt. Honeysuckle Family.

Shrubby or arborescent; often thirty feet high; with finely fissured bark. Leaves.—Opposite; petioled; pinnate. Leaflets.—Three to nine; lanceolate; acuminate; serrate; two inches or so long; smooth. Flowers.—Minute; two or three lines across; in large, flat, five-branched cymes; white. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.—Rotate; five-lobed. Stamens.—Five; alternate with the corolla lobes. Ovary.—Three- to five-celled. Stigmas of same number. Berries.—Small; dark blue, with a dense white bloom. Hab.—Throughout the State; common.

The elder is one of our most widely distributed shrubs, and is a familiar sight upon almost every open glade or plain. It is especially abundant in the south. Its flower-clusters, made up of myriads of tiny cream-white blossoms, make a showy but delicate and lacelike mat, while its berries are beautiful and inviting. The bears are especially appreciative of these, and we have sometimes seen their footprints leading along a lonely mountain road to the elder-berry bushes. The fruit is prized by our housewives for pies and preserves, and it would doubtless make as good wine as that of the Eastern species.

Among the Spanish-Californians the blossoms are known as "sauco" and are regarded as an indispensable household remedy for colds. They are administered in the form of a tea, which induces a profuse perspiration. It is said that Dr. Boerhaave held the elder in such reverence for the multitude of its virtues, that he always removed his hat when he passed it.

In ancient times the elder was the subject of many strange superstitions. In his interesting book, "The Folk-Lore of Plants," Mr. Thistleton Dyer says that it was reputed to be possessed of magic power, and that any baptized person whose eyes had been anointed with the green juice of its inner bark could recognize witches anywhere. Owing to these magic properties, it was often planted near dwellings to keep away evil spirits. By making a magic circle and standing within it with elder-berries gathered on St. John's Night, the mystic fern-seed could be secured which possessed the strength of forty men and enabled one to walk invisible. This was one of the trees suspected as having furnished wood for the Cross; and to this day the English country people believe themselves safe from lightning when standing under an elder, because lightning never strikes the tree of which the Cross was made.

COULTER'S SNAPDRAGON.

Antirrhinum Coulterianum, Benth. Figwort Family.

Stems.—Two to four feet high; smooth below. Leaves.—Linear to oval; distant. Tendril-shoots long and slender, produced mostly below the flowers. Flowers.—White or violet; in densely crowded villous-pubescent spikes, two to ten inches long. (Otherwise as A. vagans.) Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The flowers of this pretty snapdragon are usually white, and the lower lip, with its great palate often dotted with dark color, takes up the major part of the blossom. They are sometimes violet, however, when they much resemble the flowers of the toad-flax, but are without their long spur.

A. Orcuttianum, Gray, is a similar species, but more slender, with fewer and smaller flowers, whose lower lip is not much larger than the upper, and whose flower-spikes are disposed to have the tortile branchlets in their midst. This is found near San Diego and southward.

HELIOTROPE.

Heliotropium Curassavicum, L. Borage Family.

Diffusely spreading; six to twelve inches high. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; obovate to linear; an inch or two long; succulent; glaucous. Flowers.—Usually white, sometimes lavender; in dense, usually two-forked spikes. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Salver-form; border five-lobed, with plaited sinuses; three lines across. Stamens.—Five. Anthers sessile. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Stigma umbrella-like. Hab.—Widely distributed.

This, the only species of true heliotrope common within our borders, is widely distributed over the world. It affects the sand of the seashore or saline soils of the interior. It is in no way an attractive plant, as compared with our garden heliotrope, as its flowers have a washed-out look and are not at all fragrant, while its pale stems and foliage lack color and character.

Its leaves, which contain a mucilaginous juice, are dried and reduced to powder by the Spanish-Californians, who esteem them very highly as a cure for the wounds of men and animals. They blow the dry powder into the wound.

HOREHOUND.

Marrubium vulgare, Linn. Mint Family.

The horehound has been introduced from Europe at various points along our Coast, but it is now so abundant as to seem like an indigenous plant. It has many white-woolly, square stems, and roundish, wrinkly opposite leaves, covered beneath with matted, white-woolly hairs. Its small, white, bilabiate flowers are crowded in the axils of the upper leaves so densely as to appear like whorls. It may be known from the other members of the Mint family by its campanulate calyx with ten strong, recurved teeth.

This has long been used in medicine as a tonic, and is especially esteemed by our Spanish-Californians as a remedy for colds and lung troubles.

WHITE EVENING PRIMROSE.

Œnothera Californica, Watson. Evening-Primrose Family.

Hoary pubescent, and more or less villous. Stems.—A foot or so high. Leaves.—Oblanceolate or lanceolate; sinuately toothed or irregularly pinnatifid; two to four inches long. Flowers.—White; turning to rose-color; two inches across. Ovary and Calyx-tube.—Over three inches long. Calyx-lobes.—One inch long; separate at the tips. (See Œnothera for flower-structure.) Hab.—Central and Southern California; especially about the San Bernardino region; not plentiful.

Perhaps the most beautiful of all our evening primroses is this charming white species. Late in the afternoon the handsome silvery foliage begins to show the great white, opening moons of the fragile blossoms. Their silken texture, delicate fragrance, and chaste look make them paramount among blossoms.

It is a most interesting sight to watch the opening of one of the nodding silvery buds. I sat down by one which had already uplifted its head. The calyx-lobes had just commenced to part in the center, showing the white, silken corolla tightly rolled within. It grew larger from moment to moment, when suddenly the calyx-lobes parted with a jerk, and the petals, freed from their bondage, quickly spread wider and wider, as though some spirit within were forcing its way out, while one after another the calyx-lobes were turned downward with a quick, decisive movement. It was a wonderful exhibition of the power of motion in plants. I could now look within and see a magical tangle of yellow anthers delicately draped with cobwebby ropes of pollen.

The stamens take a downward curve toward the lower petal. The anthers have already opened their stores of golden pollen before the unfurling of the buds, so that the somewhat sticky ropes are all ready to adhere to the first moth who visits the flower in search of the delicious and abundant nectar stored in the depths of the long calyx-tube. The day following their opening the blossoms begin to turn to a delicate pink, and the calyx-lobes have a fleshlike look.

WHITE EVENING PRIMROSE—Œnothera Californica.

EVENING SNOW.

Gilia dichotoma, Benth. Phlox or Polemonium Family.

Six inches to a foot high; erect; sparsely leaved. Leaves.—Opposite; mostly entire; filiform. Flowers.—Nearly sessile in the forks, or terminal. Calyx.—With cylindric tube five lines long; wholly white, scarious, except the five filiform green ribs, continued into needle-like lobes. Corolla.—White; an inch or two across. Anthers linear. Hab.—Throughout the western part of the State.

This is one of the most showy of our gilias. Miss Eastwood writes of it: "At about four o'clock in the afternoon Gilia dichotoma begins to whiten the hillside. Before expansion the flowers are hardly noticeable; the dull pink of the edges, which are not covered in the convolute corolla, hides their identity and makes the change which takes place when they unveil their radiant faces to the setting sun the more startling. They intend to watch all night and by sunset all are awake. In the morning they roll up their petals again when daylight comes on, and when the sun is well up all are asleep, tired out with the vigil of the night. The odor is most sickening.... The same flower opens several times, and grows larger as it grows older."

HEART'S-EASE.

Viola ocellata, Torr. and Gray. Violet Family.

Stems.—Nearly erect; six to twelve inches high. Leaves.—Cordate; acutish; conspicuously crenate. Petals.—Five to seven lines long; the upper white within, deep brown-purple without; the others white or yellowish, veined with purple; the lateral with a purple spot near the base and slightly bearded on the claw. (Flower structure as in V. pedunculata.) Hab.—Wooded districts from Monterey to Mendocino County.

This dainty little heart's-ease has nothing of the gay, joyous, self-assertive look of our yellow pansy, but rather the shy, timid mien belonging to all the creatures of the woodland. It ventures its pretty blossoms in late spring and early summer.

ICE-PLANT.

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L. Fig-Marigold Family.

Procumbent, succulent plants, covered with minute, elongated, glistening papillæ. Leaves.—Flat; ovate or spatulate; undulate-margined; clasping. Flowers.—White or rose-colored; axillary; nearly sessile; rather small. Calyx.—With campanulate tube and usually five unequal lobes. Petals.—Linear; numerous. Stamens.—Numerous. Ovary.—Two- to many-celled. Stigmas five. Hab.—The Coast and adjacent islands from Santa Barbara southward; also in the Mojave Desert.

The ice-plant spreads its broad, green leaves over the ground, often making large rugs, which, when reddened by the approach of drouth and glistening with small crystals, produce a charming effect. The flat leaves of this plant are quite unexpectedly different from those of our other species of Mesembryanthemum, which are usually cylindrical or triangular. The leaf-stems and the calyx-tube, in particular, are beautifully jeweled with the clear, glasslike incrustation. The flesh-pink or almost white flowers resemble small sea-anemones, with their single row of tentacle-like petals and hollow tube powdered with the little white anthers.

The plant grows so abundantly in the fields of the southern seasides as to be a dreadful pest to the farmer, and it is very disagreeable to walk through, as it yields up the water of its crystals very readily, and this is said to be of an alkaline quality, which is ruinous to shoe-leather.

This ice-plant grows plentifully in the chalky regions of France, and has there been recommended for use as a food, to be prepared like spinach. It also grows in the Canary Islands.

SQUAW-GRASS. SOUR-GRASS. TURKEY-BEARD.

Xerophyllum tenax, Nutt. Lily Family.

Radical leaves.—Very numerous; two or three feet long; about two lines broad; gracefully flexile; serrulate. Scape.—Two to five feet high; with scattered leaves; bearing at top a dense raceme a foot or two long. Perianth segments.—Six; spreading rotately; four or five lines long; white. Stamens.—Six. Ovary.—Three-celled. Styles three; filiform. Hab.—Coast Ranges to British Columbia; also in the Northern Sierras.

Often upon high ridges we notice the large clumps of certain plants with long, slender, grasslike leaves, which ray out in every direction like a fountain, and resemble a small pampas-grass before it flowers. We naturally wonder what the plants are, but it may be many years before our curiosity is satisfied. Suddenly some spring we find them sending up tall blossom-shafts, crowned with great airy plumes of pure-white flowers, fully worthy of our long and patient waiting. After putting forth this supreme effort of a lifetime, and maturing its seed, the plant dies.

In the north, where it is sometimes very abundant, and occupies extensive meadows, it is known as "sour-grass." The name "squaw-grass" is also applied there, because the leaves, which are long, wiry, and tough, are used by the Indians in the weaving of some of their finest baskets. Baskets made from them are particularly pliable and durable.

WHITE OWL'S CLOVER.

Orthocarpus versicolor, Greene. Figwort Family.

Slender; seldom branching or more than six inches high. Herbage slightly reddish. Leaves.—Cleft into filiform divisions at the apex. Flowers.—Pure white, fading pinkish; very fragrant. Lower lip of the corolla with three very large sacs. Folds of the throat densely bearded. (See Orthocarpus.) Hab.—San Francisco and Marin County.

During the spring the meadows about San Francisco are luxuriantly covered with the pretty blossoms of the owl's clover, which make snowy patches in some places. Unlike the other species of Orthocarpus, this has delightfully fragrant blossoms.

I do not know why this plant should be accredited to the owl and called clover, unless the quizzical-looking little blossoms are suggestive of the wise bird. But with all his wisdom, I doubt if he would recognize his clover.

WHITE OWL'S CLOVER—Orthocarpus versicolor.

HAIRBELL. LANTERN OF THE FAIRIES.

WHITE GLOBE-TULIP.

Calochortus albus, Dougl. Lily Family.

Stem.—One or two feet high; branching. Flowers.—White. Sepals.—Lanceolate. Petals.—Twelve to fifteen lines long; pearly white, sometimes lavender-tinged outside; covered within with long, silky white hairs. Gland.—Shallow crescent-shaped, with four transverse scales fringed with short glandular hairs. (See Calochortus.) Hab.—Coast Ranges and Sierras, San Diego to Tehama County.

Just before the oncoming of summer, our wooded hill-slopes and cañon-sides entertain one of the most charming of flowers; for the graceful stalks of the hairbell begin to hang out their delicate, white satin globes. Never was flower more exquisite in texture and fringing—never one more graceful in habit. If fairies have need of lanterns at all, these blossoms would certainly make very dainty globes to hold their miniature lights.

Wherever they grow, these flowers win instant and enthusiastic admiration; and they have received a variety of common names in different localities, being known as "snowy lily-bell," "satin-bell," "hairbell," "lantern of the fairies," and "white globe-tulip."

TOLGUACHA. LARGE-FLOWERED DATURA.

Datura meteloides, DC. Nightshade Family.

Hab.—Southern California, and northward—at least to Stockton.

The large-flowered Datura is a common plant along southern roadsides, producing in early May its enormous white or violet-tinged funnels, which are sometimes ten inches long. It resembles the common Jamestown-weed, of which it is a near relative, but may be distinguished by its large flower and its cylindrical calyx, which is not angled. It shares with the Jamestown-weed its narcotic poisonous qualities, and is a famous plant among our Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that they bruise and boil the root in water, and when the infusion thus made is cold, they drink it to produce a stupefying effect. In a different degree they administer it to their young dancing women as a powerful stimulant, and before going into battle the warriors take it to produce a martial frenzy in themselves.

HAIRBELL—Calochortus albus.

By the Piutes it is called "main-oph-weep." The specific name, meteloides, indicates the resemblance of this plant to Datura Metel, of India.

YERBA SANTA. MOUNTAIN BALM.

Eriodictyon glutinosum, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.

Shrubby; three to five feet high. Leaves.—Thick; glutinous; smooth above; light beneath, with prominent net-veining; three to six inches long. Flowers.—Purple, violet, or white. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Six lines long; four lines across. Stamens.—Five; alternate with the corolla-lobes. Ovary.—Two-celled. Styles two. Hab.—Western California; common on dry hills.

The bitter, aromatic leaves of the yerba santa are a highly valued, domestic remedy for colds, and many old-fashioned people would not be without it.

Dr. Bard, one of our most eminent physicians, writes of this interesting little shrub: "It has been reserved for the Californian Indian to furnish three of the most valuable vegetable additions which have been made to the pharmacopœia during the last twenty years. One, the Eriodictyon glutinosum, growing profusely in our foothills, was used by them in affections of the respiratory tract, and its worth was so appreciated by the missionaries that they named it yerba santa, or holy plant."

The other plants referred to by Dr. Bard are the Rhamnus, or Cascara sagrada, and the Grindelia. In the mountains of Mariposa County, it is known as "wild peach," probably because the leaf somewhat resembles the peach-leaf.

Dr. Behr writes that considerable quantities of it are exported, partly for medicinal purposes, and partly as a harmless and agreeable substitute for hops in the brewing of certain varieties of beer, especially porter.

In Ventura County this passes by insensible gradations into E. tomentosum, Benth., and there it is difficult to distinguish clearly between the two species.

YERBA SANTA—Eriodictyon glutinosum.

E. tomentosum, Benth., is found from San Diego probably to Santa Barbara. This comely shrub is so disguised in its woolly coat that one does not at first detect its close relationship to the more common yerba santa. Its broad, oval leaves, ribbed like the chestnut and closely notched, and its generous clusters of unusually large violet flowers, serve to bewilder us for the moment. The wool upon the foliage gives it a gray-green tone, harmonizing perfectly with the violet flowers. It is specially abundant all over the mesas by the seashore, near San Diego.

ALUM-ROOT.

Heuchera micrantha, Dougl. Saxifrage Family.

Rootstock.—Stout. Leaves.—All radical; two to four inches long. Scapes.—Often two feet high. Flowers.—White; minute; in loose panicles. Calyx.—Five-toothed; one or two lines long. Petals.—Five; one line long; on the sinuses of the calyx. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—One-celled. Styles two. Hab.—Coast Ranges and Sierras from Monterey to British Columbia.

Upon almost any drive or walk along a shaded road, we may find the alum-root hanging over a mossy bank. Its large, airy panicle is composed of minute flowers, and appears in early summer. But it is more conspicuous for its exquisite foliage than for its flowers. The leaves are usually mottled in light green and richly veined in dark brown or red, and they often turn to a rich red later in the season.

The root is woody and astringent, to which latter fact the plant owes its English name, which it shares with the other members of the genus. These are very satisfactory plants to bring in from the woods, because they remain beautiful in water for many weeks.

ALUM-ROOT—Heuchera micrantha.

CHAMISAL. CHAMISO. GREASEWOOD.

Adenostoma fasciculatum, Hook. and Arn. Rose Family.

Shrubs two to twenty feet high, with gray, shreddy bark and reddish, slender branches. Leaves.—Two to four lines long; linear to awl-shaped; smooth; clustered. Stipules small; acute. Flowers.—White; two lines across; in terminal racemose panicles. Calyx.—Five-toothed; with bracts below resembling another calyx; tube ten-ribbed. Petals.—Five. Stamens.—Ten to fifteen; in clusters between the petals. Ovary.—One-celled. Fruit.—A dry akene. Hab.—Widely distributed.

The chamisal forms a large part of the chaparral of our mountain slopes, and when not in bloom gives to them much the aspect imparted to the Scotch Highlands by the heather. It is an evergreen shrub, with small clustered, needle-like leaves. In late spring it is covered with large, feathery panicles of tiny white blossoms, which show with particular effectiveness against the rich olive of its foliage, and furnish the bees with valuable honey material for a considerable season. When interspersed with shrubs of livelier greens, it gives to our hill-slopes and mountain-sides a wonderfully rich and varied character. In the summer of a season when it has flowered freely, the cinnamon-colored seed-vessels blending with the olives of the foliage lend a rich, warm bronze to whole hillsides, forming a charming contrast to the straw tints and russets of grassy slopes, and adding another to the many soft harmonies of our summer landscape. It is most abundant in the Coast Ranges, where, in some localities, it covers mile after mile of hill-slopes, with its close-cropped, uniform growth.

When the chaparral, or dense shrubby growth of our mountain-sides, is composed entirely of Adenostoma, it is called chamisal.

Another species, A. sparsifolium, Torr., found in the south, and somewhat resembling the above, may be known from it by its lack of stipules, its scattered, not clustered leaves, which are obtuse and not pointed, and its somewhat larger flowers, each one pediceled.

This is commonly known among the Spanish-Californians as "Yerba del Pasmo," literally the "herb of the convulsion," and among them and the Indians it is a sovereign remedy for many ailments, being considered excellent for colds, cramps, and snakebites, and an infallible cure for tetanus, or lockjaw. The foliage fried in grease becomes a healing ointment.

The bark of this species is reddish and hangs in shreds.

HOLLY-LEAVED CHERRY. ISLAY.

Prunus ilicifolia, Walp. Rose Family.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees; eight to thirty feet high. Leaves.—Alternate; holly-like; an inch or two long. Flowers.—White; three lines across; in racemes eighteen lines to three inches long. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Petals.—Five; spreading. Stamens.—Twelve to twenty-five. Ovary.—Solitary; one-celled. Style terminal. Fruit.—A dark red cherry, becoming black; six lines in diameter. Hab.—Coast Ranges, San Francisco into Lower California.

The holly-leaved cherry is a very ornamental shrub, with its shining, prickly evergreen leaves, and it is coming more and more into favor for cultivation, especially as a hedge-shrub. In its natural state it attains its greatest perfection in the mountains near Santa Barbara and southward. On dry hills it is only a shrub, but in the rich soil of cañon bottoms it becomes a tree. Some of the finest specimens are to be found in the gardens of the old missions, where they have been growing probably a century.

Dr. Behr tells us that the foliage, in withering, develops hydrocyanic acid, the odor of which is quite perceptible. The leaves are then poisonous to sheep and cattle.

The shrubs are especially beautiful in spring, after they have made their new growth of bright green at the ends of the branches, and put forth a profusion of feathery bloom. The blossoms have the pleasant, bitter fragrance of the cultivated cherry, and attract myriads of bees, who make the region vocal with their busy hum. The fruit, which ripens from September to December, is disappointing, owing to its very thin pulp, though its astringent and acid flavor is not unpleasant.

It was used by the aborigines as food, however, and made into an intoxicating drink by fermentation. The meat of the stones ground and made into balls constituted a delicate morsel with them.

YERBA BUENA.

Micromeria Douglasii, Benth. Mint Family.

Aromatic trailing vines. Stems.—Slender; one to four feet long. Leaves.—One inch long; round-ovate. Flowers.—Solitary; axillary; white or purplish. Calyx.—Five-toothed; two lines long. Corolla.—Five lines long; bilabiate. Stamens.—Four; in pairs on the corolla. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma unevenly two-lipped. Hab.—Vancouver Island to Los Angeles County.

The yerba buena is as dear to the Californian as the Mayflower to the New Englander, and is as intimately associated with the early traditions of this Western land as is that delicate blossom with the stormy past of the Pilgrim Fathers. Its delicious, aromatic perfume seems in some subtle way to link those early days of the Padres with our own, and to call up visions of the long, low, rambling mission buildings of adobe, with their picturesque red-tiled roofs; the flocks and herds tended by gentle shepherds in cowls; and the angelus sounding from those quaint belfries, and vibrating in ever-widening circles over hill and vale.

Before the coming of the Mission Fathers, the Indians used this little herb, placing great faith in its medicinal virtues, so that the Padres afterward bestowed upon it the name of "yerba buena"—"the good herb." It is still used among our Spanish-Californians in the form of a tea, both as a pleasant beverage and as a febrifuge, and also as a remedy for indigestion and other disorders.

They designate this as "Yerba Buena del Campo"—i.e. the wild or field yerba buena,—to distinguish it from the "Yerba Buena del Poso"—"the herb of the well,"—which is the common garden-mint growing in damp places.

Aside from its associations and medicinal virtues, this is a charming little plant. In half-shaded woods its long, graceful stems make a trailing interlacement upon the ground and yield up their minty fragrance as we pass.

YERBA BUENA—Micromeria Douglasii.

MATILIJA POPPY.

Romneya Coulteri, Harv. Poppy Family.

Stems.—Numerous; two to fifteen feet high. Leaves.—Alternate; petioled; the lower pinnatifid; the upper pinnately cut into long narrow segments; glaucous; three to five inches long; smooth. Flowers.—Solitary; six to nine inches across. Sepals.—Three; strongly arched, covered with bristly appressed hairs; caducous. Petals.—Six; white. Stamens.—Very numerous. Filaments filiform; yellow, purple below. Ovary.—Seven- to eleven-celled. Stigmas several. Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The Matilija poppy (pronounced ma-til'li-ha) must be conceded the queen of all our flowers. It is not a plant for small gardens, but the fitting adornment of a large park, where it can have space and light and air to rear its imperial stems and shake out its great diaphanous flowers. It is one of the most wonderful of wild flowers, and it is difficult to believe that nature, without the aid of a careful gardener, should have produced such a miracle of loveliness. It is justly far-famed, and by English gardeners, who now grow it successfully, it is regarded as a priceless treasure, and people go from many miles around to see it when it blooms. It is to be regretted that our flowers must go abroad to find their warmest admirers.

This plant was named in honor of Dr. Romney Robinson, a famous astronomer. Its common name was given it because it grows in particular abundance in the Matilija Cañon, some miles above Ventura in the mountains. Many people have the mistaken idea that it grows only in that region. It is not common, by any means; but it is found in scattered localities from Santa Barbara southward into Mexico. It is very abundant near Riverside, and also upon the southern boundary and below in Lower California, where the plants cover large areas. It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion of remote cañons, and nothing more magnificent could be imagined than a steep cañon-side covered with the great bushy plants, thickly sown with the enormous white flowers.

MATILIJA POPPY—Romneya Coulteri.

The round buds (which, however, are sometimes pointed) are closely wrapped in three overlapping hairy sepals. These gradually open, and at dawn the buds unfurl their crumpled petals to the day, exhaling a pleasant fragrance. The blossoms remain open for many days.

These plants have long been in use among the Indians of Lower California, who esteem them highly for their medicinal qualities. The seeds require a long period for germination, and they have been known to come at the end of two years. The better method of propagation is from root-cuttings.

The plant has been called "Mission poppy" and "Giant Californian white poppy," but the pretty Indian name cannot be improved upon.

WHITE SAGE. GREASEWOOD.

Audibertia polystachya, Benth. Mint Family.

Shrubby, three to ten feet high; many-stemmed. Leaves.—Opposite; lanceolate; narrowing into a petiole; several inches long. Flowers.—White or pale lavender, in loose panicles a foot or two long. Calyx.—Tubular; bilabiate. Corolla.—About six lines long, with short tube and bilabiate border. Upper lip small; erect. Lower lip three-lobed; the middle lobe large. Stamens.—Two; jointed. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style slender. Stigma two-cleft. Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The classic honey of Hymettus could not have been clearer or more wholesome than that distilled by the bees from the white sage of Southern California, which has become justly world-renowned. The plants cover extensive reaches of valley and hill-slopes, and are often called "greasewood."

Certain it is that the white stems have a very greasy, gummy feel and a rank, aggressive odor. In spring the long, coarse, sparsely leafy branches begin to rise from the woody base, often making the slopes silvery; and by May these have fully developed their loose, narrow panicles of pale flowers and yellowish buds.

The structure of these blossoms is very interesting. The long, prominent lower lip curves downward and upward and backward upon itself, like a swan's neck, while the two stamens rising from its surface lift themselves like two long horns, and the style curves downward.

A bee arriving at this flower naturally brushes against the stigma, leaving upon it some of the pollen gained from another flower. Then alighting upon the lower lip, his weight bends it downward, and he grasps the stamens as convenient handles, thus drawing the anthers toward his body, where the pollen is dusted upon his coat as he probes beneath the closed upper lip for the honey in the depths of the tube. The various sages of the south have a very interesting way of hybridizing.

CASCARA SAGRADA. CALIFORNIA COFFEE.

Rhamnus Californica, Esch. Buckthorn Family.

Shrubs.—Four to eighteen feet high. Leaves.—Alternate; elliptic to oblong; denticulate or entire; leathery; one to four inches long; six to eighteen lines wide. Flowers.—Clustered; greenish white; small. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Petals.—Five; minute; on the sinuses of the calyx; each clasping a stamen. Ovary.—Two- to four-celled. Style short. Fruit.—Berry-like; black; four to six lines long; containing two or three nutlets, like coffee-beans. Hab.—Throughout California.

Long before the advent of the Spanish, the medicinal virtues of this shrub were known to the Indians, who used it as a remedy for rheumatism and, according to Dr. Bard, to correct the effects of an acorn diet. The Mission Fathers afterward came to appreciate its worth so highly that they bestowed upon it the name Cascara sagrada, or the "sacred bark." Since those early days the fame of it has spread the world around. No more valuable laxative is known to the medical world to-day, and every year great quantities of it are exported from our shores. Though the shrub is found as far south as San Diego, the bark is not gathered in any quantity south of Monterey, as it becomes too thin southward. The shrub goes under a variety of names, according to the locality in which it is found.

In Monterey County it is known as "yellow-boy" or "yellow-root," and in Sonoma County it becomes "pigeon-berry," because the berry is a favorite food of the wild pigeons, and lends to their flesh a bitter taste.

Some years ago quite an excitement prevailed in the State when some visionary persons believed they had found a perfect substitute for coffee in the seeds of this shrub. To be sure, they do somewhat resemble the coffee-bean in form, but the resemblance goes no further; for upon a careful analysis they revealed none of the qualities of coffee, nor upon roasting did they exhale its aroma. After much discussion of the matter and the laying out in imagination of extensive, natural coffee-plantations upon our wild hill-slopes, these hopeful people were destined to see their project fall in ruins.

This shrub is very variable, according to the locality where it grows. Under shade, the leaves become herbaceous and ample, and as we go northward that becomes the prevailing type, and is then called R. Purshiana, DC. It is then often very large, having a trunk the size of a man's body. In Oregon it is known as "chittemwood" and "bitter bark," and also as "wahoo" and "bear-wood." The var. tomentella, Brew. and Wats., is densely white-tomentose, especially on the under surfaces of the leaves.

EVERLASTING FLOWER. CUDWEED.

LADY'S TOBACCO.

Gnaphalium decurrens, Ives. Composite Family

Viscid-glandular under the loose hairs. Flower-heads.—In densely crowded, flattish clusters. Involucre.—Campanulate; of very numerous, scarious, yellowish-white, oval scales. (Otherwise similar to Anaphalis Margaritacea.) Hab.—From San Diego through Oregon.

The common everlasting flower, or cudweed, is plentiful upon our dry hills, blooming in early summer, where its white clusters are conspicuous objects amid the drying vegetation. In our rural districts it is believed that sleeping upon a pillow made of these flowers will cure catarrhal affections.

G. Sprengelii, Hook. and Arn., may be known from the above by its densely gray, woolly herbage, which is not glandular-viscid. It is also common throughout the State.

The beautiful edelweiss of the Alps is a species of Gnaphalium, G. leontopodium.

CALIFORNIAN BUCKEYE.

CALIFORNIAN HORSE-CHESTNUT.

Æsculus Californica, Nutt. Maple or Soapberry Family.

Shrubs or trees ten to forty feet high. Leaves.—Opposite; petioled; with five palmate, stalked leaflets. Leaflets.—Oblong; acute; three to five inches long; serrulate. Flowers.—White; in a thyrse a foot long; many of them imperfect. Calyx.—Tubular; two-lobed. Petals.—Four or five; six lines or more long; unequal. Stamens.—Five to seven; exserted. Anthers buff. Ovary.—Three-celled. Nuts.—One to three inches in diameter; usually one in the pod. Hab.—Coast Ranges of Middle California; also the Sierra foothills.

Our Californian buckeye is closely allied to the horse-chestnuts and buckeyes of the eastern half of the continent. It is usually found upon stream-banks or the side-walls of cañons, and reaches its greatest perfection in the valleys of our central Coast Ranges. It usually branches low into a number of clean, round, light-gray limbs, which widen out into a broad, dense, rounded head. Its leaves are fully developed before the flowers appear. When in full bloom, in May, it is considered one of the most beautiful of all our American species. Its long, white flower-spikes, sprinkled rather regularly over the green mound of foliage, are very suggestive of a neat calico print. Early to come, the leaves are as early to depart, and by midsummer the beautiful skeleton is often bare, its interlacing twigs making a delicate network against the deep azure of the sky.

Though lavish in its production of flowers, usually but one or two of the large cluster succeed in maturing fruit. By October and November the leathery pods begin to yield up their big golden-brown nuts, which are great favorites among the squirrels. The Indians are said to resort to these nuts in times of famine. Before using them, they roast them a day or two in the ground, to extract the poison.

The inner wood of the root, after being kiln-cured for several weeks, becomes very valuable to the cabinet-maker. It is then of an exquisite mottled green, and when highly polished can hardly be distinguished from a fine piece of onyx.

PUSSY'S-PAWS.

Spraguea umbellata, Torr. Purslane Family.

Radical-leaves.—Spatulate or oblanceolate; six lines to four inches long. Stem-leaves.—Similar, but smaller, often reduced to a few bracts. Scapes.—Several; two to twelve inches high. Flowers.—In dense spikes. Sepals.—Two; orbicular; thin; papery; two to four lines across; whitish; equaling the petals. Petals.—Four; rose-color. Stamens.—Three. Ovary.—One-celled. Style bifid. Hab.—The Sierras, from the Yosemite to British Columbia.

Pussy's-paws is a very plentiful plant in the Sierras, usually growing upon dry, rocky soil. It varies much in aspect, sometimes sending up a stout, erect flower-scape, and again growing low and matlike with its prostrate flower-stems radiating from the center. It blooms from early summer onward, often almost covering the ground with its blossoms. The flower-clusters grow in a bunch, much like the pink cushions on pussy's feet, whence the pretty common name.

SPANISH BAYONET. OUR LORD'S CANDLE.

Yucca Whipplei, Torr. Lily Family.

Without a trunk. Leaves.—All radical in a bristling hemisphere; sword-like. Flower-panicles.—Distaff-shaped; three or more feet long; at the summit of a leafless bracteate scape, ten or fifteen feet high. Perianth.—Rotately spreading; waxen-white (sometimes rich purple), often green- or purple-nerved. Filaments.—Clavate; pure white. Anthers transverse; yellow. Style very thick; three-angled. Stigma stalked; green; covered with tiny prominences. Fruit.—A dry capsule. (Structure otherwise as in Y. Mohavensis.) Hab.—Monterey to San Diego and eastward.

In spring and early summer the chaparral-covered hillsides of Southern California present a wonderful appearance when hundreds of these Spanish bayonets are in bloom. From day to day the waxen tapers on the distant slopes increase in height as the white bells climb the slender shafts. At length each cluster reaches its perfection, and becomes a solid distaff of sometimes two—yes, even six—thousand of the waxen blossoms!

PUSSY'S-PAWS—Spraguea umbellata.

A friend writing of them, once said: "Nearly every poetaster in the country has sung the praises of the yellow poppies and the sweet little Nemophilas, but not one, so far as I know, has ever written a stanza to these grand white soldiers and their hundred swords." There is, indeed, something glorious and warlike about them, as they marshal themselves to the defense of our hillsides.

This surpasses all known species in the height and beauty of its flower-panicles; but, once the season of flowering and fruiting has been consummated, its life mission is fulfilled, and the plant dies. The dead stalks remain standing sometimes for years upon the mountain-sides.

The seeds of this species, as well as those of the tree-yucca, are made into flour by the Indians; and from the leaves they obtain a soft, white fiber, which they use in making the linings of the coarse saddle-blankets they weave from Yucca Mohavensis. The undeveloped flowering shoots they consider a great delicacy, either raw or prepared as mescal. They gather great numbers of the plants when just at the right stage, and strip off the leaves, leaving round masses. These they prepare after the manner of a clam-bake, and when the pile is pulled to pieces and the mescal is taken out, it has a faint resemblance to a baked sweet apple, and is of about the same consistency. The whole mass is a mixture of sweet, soft pulp and coarse white fibers much like manilla rope-yarn.

RUBY LILY. CHAPARRAL LILY. REDWOOD LILY.

Lilium rubescens, Wats. Lily Family.

Hab.—The Coast Ranges, from Marin County to Humboldt County.

This is the most charming of all our Californian lilies, even surpassing in loveliness the beautiful Washington lily; and it is said to be the most fragrant of any in the world. It resembles the Washington lily; but its flowers are fuller in form, with wider petals and shorter tube, and it has a smaller bulb. It sends up a noble shaft, sometimes seven feet high, with many scattered whorls of undulate leaves, and often bears at the summit as many as twenty-five of the beautiful flowers. These are at first pure white, dotted with purple, but they soon take on a metallic luster and begin to turn to a delicate pink, which gradually deepens into a ruby purple. Mr. Purdy mentions having seen a plant with a stalk nine feet high, bearing thirty-six flowers.

RUBY LILY—Lilium rubescens.

The favorite haunts of this lily are high and inaccessible ridges, among the chaparral, or under the live-oak or redwood. Comparatively few people know of its existence, though living within a few miles of it, because they rarely ever visit these out-of-the-way fastnesses of nature.

Mr. Burroughs has somewhere said: "Genius is a specialty; it does not grow in every soil, it skips the many and touches the few; and the gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace, like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap." Certainly these blossoms have been richly endowed with this charming gift, and their delicious fragrance wafted by the wind often betrays their presence upon a hillside when unsuspected before, so that one skilled in woodcraft can often trace them by it.

THISTLE-POPPY. CHICALOTE.

Argemone platyceras, Link and Otto. Poppy Family.

Stems.—One to two and one half feet high; hispid throughout, or armed with rigid bristles or prickles. Sap yellow. Leaves.—Thistle-like; three to six inches long. Flowers.—White; two to four inches in diameter. Sepals.—Three; spinosely beaked. Petals.—Four to six. Stamens.—Numerous. Filaments slender. Ovary.—Oblong; one-celled. Stigma three- or four-lobed. Capsule very prickly. Hab.—Dry hillsides from Central California southward.

The thistle-poppy would be considered in any other country a surpassingly beautiful flower, with its large diaphanous white petals and its thistly gray-green foliage, but in California it must yield precedence to the Matilija poppy. It resembles the latter very closely in its flower, and is often mistaken for it. It may be known by its yellow juice, its prickly foliage, and its very prickly capsules. I believe the flowers are somewhat more cup-shaped than those of Romneya.

It affects dry hill-slopes and valleys, often otherwise barren, where it grows luxuriantly, and sometimes attains a height of six feet, being in full bloom in May. There, where one is unprepared for such a sight, it becomes an object of startling beauty.

Malacothrix saxatilis, Torr. and Gray. Composite Family.

Stems.—Stout; a foot or two high; woody. Leaves.—Lanceolate to spatulate; one or two inches long; entire or pinnatifid; somewhat succulent. Flower-heads.—Terminating the paniculate branches; large; two inches or so across; white, changing to rose or lilac; of ray-flowers only. Involucre.—Campanulate or hemispherical; six lines high, with many imbricated scales passing downward into loose, awl-shaped bracts. Hab.—The Coast, from Santa Barbara southward.

This beautiful plant is a dweller upon the ocean cliffs, and may be seen in abundance from the car-windows just before the train reaches Santa Barbara going north. The stems are woody and very leafy, and the plants are usually covered all over the top with the showy flower-heads.

M. tenuifolia, Torr. and Gray, is a very tall, slender, sparsely leafy plant with fragile, airy white flowers. This is common along the dusty roadsides of the south in early summer.

SALAL. WINTERGREEN.

Gaultheria Shallon, Pursh. Heath Family.

Shrubby, and one to three or more feet high or prostrate. Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; ovate to elliptical; pointed; two to four inches long; leathery; bristle-toothed when young; evergreen. Flowers.—Manzanita-like; slenderer; glandular-viscid; white or pinkish. Ovary.—Five-celled. Style single. Fruit.—Black; berry-like; aromatic; edible. (Otherwise like Arctostaphylos Manzanita.) Hab.—Coast woods, from Santa Barbara County to British Columbia.

The floor of the redwood forest in our northern coast counties is often carpeted with this little undershrub, while in other places one can wade waist-deep in it. It grows much larger north of us, and upon Vancouver Island it forms dense, impenetrable thickets. Its dark-purple berries have a very agreeable flavor, and form an important article of diet among the Oregon Indians, who call them "salal."

CALIFORNIAN SPIKENARD.

Aralia Californica, Wats. Ginseng Family.

Root.—Thick; aromatic. Stems.—Eight to ten feet high. Leaves.—Bipinnate; or the upper pinnate, with one or two pairs of leaflets. Leaflets.—Cordate-ovate; four to eight inches long; serrate. Flowers.—White; two lines long; in globular umbels, arranged in loose panicles a foot or two long. Pedicels four to six lines long. Calyx.—Five-toothed or entire. Petals and Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Two- to five-celled. Styles united to the middle. Fruit.—A purple berry. Hab.—Widely distributed; on stream-banks.

In moist, cool ravines, where the sun only slants athwart the branches and a certain dankness always lingers, the Californian spikenard scents the air with its peculiar odor. It closely resembles A. racemosa of the Eastern States, but it is a larger, coarser plant in every way. It throws up its tall stems with a fine confidence that there will be ample space for its large leaves to spread themselves uncrowded. Its feathery panicles of white flowers are followed by clusters of small purple berries, and are rather more delicate than we should expect from so large a plant.

YERBA MANSA.

Anemopsis Californica, Hook. Yerba Mansa Family.

Rootstock creeping. Radical-leaves.—Long-petioled; elliptic oblong; two to ten inches long. Stems.—Six inches to two feet high. Flowers.—Without sepals and petals, sunk in a conical spike; six to eighteen lines long; a small white bract under each flower. Spikes.—Subtended by from five to eight white petal-like bracts, six to fifteen lines long. Stamens.—Three to eight. Ovary.—Apparently one-celled. Stigmas one to five. Hab.—Southern to Central California.

Just as the fervid glow of the sun is beginning to transform the green of our southern hill-slopes to soft browns, the still vividly green lowland meadows suddenly bring forth myriads of white stars, which in their green setting become grateful resting-points for the eye. These are the blossoms of the famous Yerba Mansa of the Spanish-Californians. Among these people the plant is an infallible remedy for many disorders, and so highly do they prize it, that they often travel or send long distances for it.

YERBA MANSA—Anemopsis Californica.

The aromatic root, which has a strong, peppery taste, is very astringent, and when made into a tea or a powder, is applied with excellent results to cuts and sores. The tea is also taken as a blood-purifier; and the plant, in the form of a wash or poultice, is used for rheumatism, while the wilted leaves are said to reduce swellings. In the medical world it is beginning to be used in diseases of the mucous membrane.

SHEPHERD'S PURSE.

Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic. Mustard Family.

Among our commonest and most harmless weeds is the shepherd's purse, which has been introduced from Europe in the past. It may be easily recognized by its tiny white cruciferous flowers and its shapely little triangular, flat pods, which have a peppery taste. It is used medicinally, and valued as a remedy for many different maladies. In Europe, a common name for the plant is "mother's heart," and Mr. Johnston says that children play a sort of game with the seed-pouch. "They hold it out to their companions, inviting them to 'take a haud o' that.' It immediately cracks, and then follows a triumphant shout, 'You've broken your mother's heart!'"

Equally common is the Lepidium, or pepper-grass, the small round, flat pods of which also have a peppery taste. Both of these belong to the great Mustard family.

MARIPOSA TULIP.

Calochortus venustus, Benth. (and varieties). Lily Family.

Stems.—A foot or two high; branching. Leaves.—Narrow; grasslike; channeled; glaucous; decumbent. Flowers.—Erect; cup-shaped; white, lilac, pink, claret, magenta, purple, or rarely light yellow; of uniform color or shaded; plain or variously oculated, stained, or blotched. Petals.—One or two inches long; slightly hairy below. Gland.—Large; roundish; densely hairy. Capsule.—Lanceolate; four or five lines broad. (See Calochortus.) Hab.—Dry sandy soil, in the Coast Ranges and Sierra foothills, from Mendocino County to Los Angeles.

I once emerged from the dense chaparral of a steep hillside upon a grassy slope, where myriads of these lovely flowers tossed their delicate cups upon the breeze. As I passed from flower to flower, I noticed many insect guests regaling themselves upon the nectar. Bees and flies jostled one another and crawled amid the hairs below, and beautifully mottled butterflies hovered over them.

MARIPOSA TULIP—Calochortus venustus.

As originally described, this flower was white or pale lilac, with a more or less conspicuous, usually reddish, stain, or blotch, near the top, a brownish spot bordered with yellow in the center, and a brownish striate base. But it varies so widely from this type, in both color and spots, that neither is a reliable character from which to determine the species. Some of the oculated forms of C. luteus are so similar that they are readily confused with this, but a careful examination of the gland and the form of the capsule, together with the character of the soil in which the plants grow, will identify the species.

COMMON NIGHTSHADE.

Solanum nigrum, L. Nightshade Family.

Hab.—Along streams near the coast.

This may be easily distinguished from S. Xanti by its very small white flowers, whose corollas are but three or four lines across, and much more deeply and pointedly lobed, the lobes having a tendency to turn backward as the flowers grow older; also by its thinner, duller leaves, and much smaller, black berries, the size of peas.

It is considered a violent narcotic poison, both berries and leaves having caused death when eaten. It is used in the medical world, in the form of a tincture for various maladies, and it is said that in Bohemia the blossoming plant is hung over the cradles of infants to induce sweet slumber; while in Dalmatia the root is fried in butter and eaten to produce sleep, and is also used as remedy for hydrophobia.

Solanum Douglasii, Dunal, is a similar species, with larger flowers, which are usually white, though sometimes light blue.

BUTTERFLY TULIP.

Calochortus luteus, var. oculatus, Wats. Lily Family.

Hab.—Sierras and Coast Ranges, from Fresno County to Oregon.

Of all our lovely Mariposa tulips, this charming form is perhaps the most like the insect for which it is named. Its creamy or purplish flowers have an exquisitely tinted dark-maroon eye, surrounded by yellow, and it is often streaked in marvelous imitation of the insect's wing. It was doubtless this form Miss Coolbrith had in mind when she wrote the beautiful lines below:

WESTERN BOYKINIA.

Boykinia occidentalis, Torr. and Gray. Saxifrage Family.

Stems.—Slender; a foot or two high. Leaves.—Round-reniform; palmately three- to seven-lobed; one to three inches broad; the lobes coarsely toothed. Flowers.—In long-peduncled, loose panicles; white; four lines across; parts in fives. Calyx.—With acute teeth. Petals.—On the sinuses of the calyx. Stamens.—On the calyx, opposite its teeth. Filaments short. Ovary.—With its two cells attenuate into the slender styles. Hab.—Coast Ranges, from Santa Barbara to Washington.