[Sidenote: =Large Prickly Gilia=
_Gília Califórnica_
=Pink
Summer
California=]
An unusual-looking, conspicuous, shrubby plant, suggesting some kind
of small prickly pine or cedar, with lovely flowers. It forms large
straggling clumps, about two feet high, with many woody stems and
rich-green foliage, the leaves cut into small, spreading, needle-like
lobes, and ornamented with numbers of brilliant flowers. They are an
inch or more across, with bright pink petals and a white "eye," and are
most delicate in texture, with a satiny sheen and smelling sweet like
violets. This grows on hills and is very beautiful on Mt. Lowe.
[Sidenote: _Gília achillaefòlia_
=Blue, white
Spring, summer
California=]
This varies a good deal in color and beauty. The stems are smooth and
slender, from one to two feet tall, and the leaves are alternate,
smooth or downy, delicately cut into many fine divisions. The numerous
small flowers are funnel-form, with projecting stamens, and form a
close round head, which is an inch or more across, without bracts. The
calyx is more or less woolly, with sharp triangular teeth, the tips
turned back. Usually the flowers are blue of some shade, deep or pale,
sometimes forming patches of color in the fields, but the prettiest I
have seen grew in the woods near Santa Barbara, the individual flowers
larger than usual and pure white, with bright blue anthers. It is
common in Yosemite, but rather dull bluish-white and not pretty.
[Sidenote: _Gília capitàta_
=Blue
Spring, summer
Northwest and California=]
Very much like the last, but the flowers are smaller and form a
smaller, more compact head. The corollas are blue, with narrow petals,
varying in tint from purplish-blue to pale lilac, the calyx not
woolly, and the cluster is about an inch across, the stamens giving it
a fuzzy appearance. The leaves are smooth or slightly downy and the
seed-vessels form pretty pale green heads. This is common and sometimes
grows in such quantities as to be very effective.
[Sidenote: _Gília multiflòra_
=Blue
Summer
Ariz., New Mex.=]
The general effect of this plant is inconspicuous, though the flowers
are quite pretty close by. The roughish woody stem is only a few inches
tall and then branches abruptly into several long sprays, clothed
with many very small, narrow, pointed, thickish, dull green leaves
and ornamented towards the end with small clusters of flowers, which
are lilac or blue, marked with purple lines, less than half an inch
across, with five irregular lobes and blue anthers. This grows at the
Grand Canyon and in dry open places in the mountains.
[Illustration: Large Prickly Gilia--Gilia Californica.]
[Illustration: G. capitata.