[Sidenote: =Ground Pink, Fringed Gilia=
_Linánthus dianthiflòrus (Gilia)_
=Pink
Spring
California=]
Charming little flowers, exceedingly delicate and gay. The stem is
usually only a few inches tall, the leaves are very narrow, and the
flowers are three-quarters of an inch across, with bright pink petals,
prettily toothed at the tips, shading to white and yellow in the center
and often with a purple ring in the throat. This is common in southern
California and often grows in quantities, sprinkling the ground with
its bright little flowers.
[Sidenote: _Linánthus liniflòrus (Gilia)_
=White
Spring, summer
California=]
This is a few inches tall, with purplish stems, which are so very
slender and wiry that they look hardly thicker than hairs and the
flowers seem to be hovering in the air, giving an exceedingly pretty
and delicate effect. The leaves are stiff and dark green and the
flowers are half an inch or more across, with a yellowish tube and
white petals, delicately veined with blue, with a pale yellow pistil
and orange anthers. This grows on the dry tops of mesas, in southern
California.
There are many kinds of Phlox, natives of North America and Asia,
usually perennials, the leaves toothless, mostly opposite, at least
the lower ones; the calyx five-ribbed; the corolla salver-form; the
stamens inserted very unequally in the tube and not protruding; the
seeds not mucilaginous. The salver-form corolla and the seeds not being
mucilaginous distinguishes Phlox from Gilia. The name is from the
Greek, meaning "flame."
[Sidenote: =Alpine Phlox=
_Phlóx Douglásii_
=White, lilac
Summer
Northwest, etc.=]
A charming little plant, with woody stems a few inches tall and partly
creeping along the ground, densely crowded with numerous needle-like
leaves, forming dull green, cushion-like mats, sometimes over a
foot across and suggesting some sort of prickly moss. These prickly
cushions are sprinkled thickly all over with pretty lilac flowers and
the effect is most attractive. The flowers vary in tint from white to
pink and purple and are nearly three-quarters of an inch across and
slightly sweet-scented. The tube is longer than the hairy calyx, and
the petals fold back in fading. This grows on gravelly slopes and
summits around Yosemite and in the Northwest, from the Rocky Mountains
to Nebraska, and its patches of pale color are often conspicuous in
dry rocky places, or in open forests, at an altitude of three to seven
thousand feet.
[Illustration: Linanthus liniflorus.
Alpine Phlox--Phlox Douglasii.