parts of the world, save Australia and South Africa. About two hundred
species are native of North America, most of which are found in the region
west of the Mississippi River. Of these several are known as "loco-weed,"
and are poisonous to sheep and cattle.
Very few species of this genus have any economic value. _A. gummifer_ and
some other similar species of Western Asia, low, spiny shrubs, yield the
gum tragacanth of commerce.
OENOTHERA, L. Evening-Primrose Family.
Herbs, or plants sometimes woody at the base.
_Leaves._--Alternate. _Flowers._--Axillary or in spikes or
racemes. _Calyx-tube._--More or less prolonged above the ovary
with four reflexed segments.
_Petals._--Four; obcordate to obovate; sessile; yellow to
white, often tinged with red or turning red in fading.
_Stamens._--Eight; equal; or those opposite the petals shorter.
Anthers perfect; two-celled; versatile. _Ovary._--Four-celled;
many ovuled. Style filiform. Stigma four-lobed or capitate.
_Fruit._--A capsule with the seeds in one or two rows in each
cell.
The name _OEnothera_ is from two Greek words, meaning _wine_ and _a hunt_,
or _pursuit_. Mr. Gray tells us that it was given in ancient times to some
plant whose roots were eaten to provoke a relish for wine.
This is a large genus, containing a hundred or more species, which are
mostly confined to America, about a quarter of them being Californian. Many
of them are very beautiful and have long been favorites in gardens. The
flowers are yellow or white, and are commonly designated as "evening
primroses," as many of them open upon the edge of evening.
GODETIA, Spach. Evening-Primrose Family.
The genus _Godetia_ is closely allied to that of _OEnothera_; but is
distinguished from the latter in several points. Its flowers are purple,
lilac, or rose-colored--never yellow; the anthers are basifixed--_i.e._
fixed by their bases--not versatile; and the stigma, instead of being
capitate, has four linear lobes.
The plants of this genus were formerly included under _OEnothera_; but it
has been thought best to put them into a separate genus, which has been
named for a Dr. Godet.
There are numerous species, many of them very beautiful and showy. They
vary a great deal under different conditions and in different seasons, and
are not well understood by botanists as yet.
The genus is confined to the western coast of North America, and is most
largely represented in California.
The species flower mostly in late spring and early summer, which has given
rise to the pretty name of "farewell to spring" for the plants of this
genus.
GILIA, Renz. and Pav. Phlox or Polemonium Family.
Herbs or plants somewhat shrubby at base. _Leaves._--Opposite
or alternate; simple or compound; without stipules. Many
species with showy flowers. All the parts of the flower five,
except the pistil, which has a three-celled ovary and a
three-lobed style. _Calyx._--Imbricated in the bud.
_Corolla._--Regular; funnel-form, salver-form, or sometimes
short campanulate or rotate; convolute in the bud.
_Stamens._--Five; on the corolla alternate with its lobes;
distinct. Filaments mostly slender; sometimes unequal in
length; not bearded at base.
This genus was named in honor of Philip Gil, a Spanish botanist. In America
the name is pronounced _jil'i-a_, though according to the rules of the
Spanish language _he'li-a_ would be the correct pronunciation.
This is a comparatively large genus, comprising about a hundred species,
most of which are native to the western parts of the United States. The
flowers are often showy and beautiful, and some of them closely resemble
the phloxes. A number are cultivated under the botanical name of
_Ipomopsis_ or _Leptosiphon_.
PHACELIA, Juss. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.
Herbs, mostly branched from the base and hairy.
_Leaves._--Alternate; the lower sometimes opposite; simple or
compound. _Flowers._--Usually in one-sided scorpioid racemes.
_Calyx._--Deeply five-parted; without appendages.
_Corolla._--From almost rotate to narrowly funnel-form;
five-lobed; with ten vertical plates or scales at the base
within. _Stamens._--Five; equally inserted low or at the base
of the corolla. _Ovary._--One-celled. Styles two; or one which
is two-cleft. _Fruit._--A capsule.
The name _Phacelia_ is from a Greek word signifying a _fascicle_, or
_bunch_, and refers to the fascicled or clustered flower-racemes.
This genus is closely allied to _Nemophila_, but differs from it in several
points. The calyx is not furnished with appendages at the sinuses; the
corolla is imbricated in the bud--_i.e._ the lobes overlap one another in
the manner of bricks in a wall,--and is not convolute, or rolled up, as in
_Nemophila_.
This is mainly a North American genus, having about fifty species, about
thirty of which are Californian. Many of the species have beautiful and
showy flowers, and are cultivated in gardens. The blossoms are blue,
violet, purple, or white, but never yellow (save sometimes in the tube or
throat).
MIMULUS, L. Figwort Family.
_Leaves._--Opposite; simple. _Flowers._--Axillary on solitary
peduncles; sometimes becoming racemose by the diminution of the
upper leaves to bracts. _Calyx._--Tubular or campanulate;
mostly five-angled and five- toothed. _Corolla._--Funnel-form;
bilabiate; the upper lip erect, two-lobed; the lower
three-lobed; a pair of ridges, either bearded or naked, running
down the lower side of the throat. _Stamens._--Four. Anthers
often near together in pairs, with divergent cells.
_Ovary._--Superior; two-celled. Style filiform. Stigma
two-lipped, with the lips commonly dilated and petaloid.
The genus _Mimulus_ is so named from the shape of the corolla, which is
supposed to resemble the gaping countenance of an ape. It comprises forty
or fifty species, and affords us some of our most beautiful flowers. The
greater number of species and the handsomest are Pacific, and several of
our Californian species are especially prized in cultivation.
The plants of the genus are all known as "monkey-flowers." They exhibit an
interesting character in the structure and movements of the stigma. It is
usually composed of two somewhat expanded lips. These are extremely
sensitive, and when touched, or when pollen has been received by them, they
close quite rapidly.
ORTHOCARPUS, Nutt. Figwort Family.
Low herbs; almost all annuals. _Leaves._--Mainly alternate;
sessile; often cut into from three to five filiform divisions;
the upper passing into the bracts of the dense spike and
usually colored, as are the calyx-lobes.
_Calyx._--Short-tubular or oblong-campanulate; evenly
four-cleft, or sometimes cleft before and behind and the
divisions again cleft. _Corolla._--Tubular; the upper lip, or
galea, little or not at all longer than the lower; small in
comparison with the large, inflated, one- to three-saccate lower
one, which usually bears more or less conspicuous teeth.
_Stamens._--Four; inclosed in the upper lip.
_Ovary._--Two-celled. Style long. Stigma capitate. _Fruit._--A
capsule.
The genus _Orthocarpus_ is mainly Californian, comprising within our
borders something less than twenty species. Most of them are to be found
from San Francisco northward and in the mountains.
They are closely related to the _Castilleias_, and resemble them closely in
habit. The difference between the two genera lies in the relative sizes of
the upper and lower lips of the corolla. In _Castilleia_ the upper lip is
the larger and more prominent; while in _Orthocarpus_ the lower is much
more conspicuous, often consisting of three inflated sacs.
The species are quite difficult of determination.
"Owl's clover" is a common English name for the plants of this genus.
PENTSTEMON, Mitchell. Figwort Family.
Perennial herbs, or rarely shrubby. _Leaves._--Opposite, rarely
whorled; the upper sessile or clasping; the floral gradually or
abruptly reduced to bracts. _Flowers._--Usually red, blue,
purple, or white, rarely yellow; in raceme-like panicles.
_Calyx._--Five-parted. _Corolla._--With a conspicuous and
mostly elongated or ventricose tube; the throat swelling out on
the lower if on either side; the limb more or less bilabiate,
with the upper lip two-lobed and the lower three-cleft,
recurved, or spreading. _Stamens._--Four perfect; a fifth with
a bearded filament only. Anther cells mostly united or running
together at the summit. _Ovary._--Two-celled. Style long.
Stigma entire.
The name _Pentstemon_ is from two Greek words, signifying _five_ and
_stamen_. It was bestowed upon this genus because the fifth stamen is
present, though sterile.
The genus is a large one, comprising seventy species, most of which are
North American, though a few are Mexican. It is most abundantly represented
in the Pacific States and the States west of the Mississippi. California
has over twenty species, many of them very beautiful, a number of them
being in cultivation.
"Beard-tongue" is the common English name for the plants of this genus.
From so many charming species it has been very difficult to select; and if
the reader finds some beautiful flower of this genus which is unnamed in
these pages, he is advised to consult the technical botanies.
CALOCHORTUS, Pursh. Lily Family.
_Stem._--Branching; from a membranous-coated, sometimes
fibrous-coated corm. _Leaves._--Few; linear-lanceolate; the
radical one or two much larger than those of the flexuous or
erect stem. _Flowers._--Few to many; showy; terminal or
axillary, or umbellately fascicled. _Perianth._--Deciduous; of
six more or less concave segments; the three outer lanceolate,
greenish, more or less sepal-like; the inner (petals) mostly
broadly cuneate-obovate, usually with a conspicuous glandular
pit toward the base, which is apt to be hidden by long hairs.
_Stamens._--Six. Anthers erect; basifixed.
_Ovary._--Three-celled; three-angled. Stigmas three; sessile;
recurved. _Capsule._--Three-angled or winged.
The _Calochorti_ are the most widely diffused of all the liliaceous plants
of the Pacific Coast, and comprise some of the most beautiful flowers in
the world. "On the north they reach British America; one species is to be
found as far east as Nebraska; and several are natives of Northern Mexico;
and within these limits no considerable section of country is destitute of
some species."[1] They are so closely allied to the true tulips that the
common designation of them as "tulips" is not at all amiss.
The name _Calochortus_ signifies _beautiful grass_. The members of the
genus fall naturally into three general groups:--
_First_--The GLOBE TULIPS, which have flexile stems, sub-globose, nodding
flowers, and nodding capsules. Of these there are three--_C. albus_, _C.
pulchellus_, and _C. amoenus_.
_Second_--The STAR TULIPS, having low, flexile stems, erect, starlike
flowers, with spreading petals, and nodding capsules. They comprise _C.
Benthami_, _C. Maweanus_, _C. coeruleus_, _C. apiculatus_, _C. elegans_,
_C. Tolmei_, _C. umbellatus_, etc.
_Third_--The MARIPOSA TULIPS, which are usually tall, fine plants, with
stiff, erect stems, having erect, cup-shaped or open-campanulate flowers,
usually large and handsome, followed by erect capsules.
They have a few narrow, grasslike, radical leaves, which have usually dried
away by the time of flowering, which is in early summer, after the ground
has become dry and hard. These inhabit our dry, open hillsides and grassy
slopes, loving a stony, clayey, sandy, or volcanic soil. They comprise
over thirty different known forms, and others are constantly being
discovered.
They have a tendency to hybridize, and the various forms sport and vary,
and run into one another in such a wonderful manner that the exact
determination of all the species is an impossible task to all but a few
experts--and even they are not certain about them all yet. We have given
only a few of the commonest or best-characterized species.
_Mariposa_ is the Spanish word meaning _butterfly_, and was applied on
account of the marvelous resemblance of the markings of the petals of some
of the forms to the wings of that insect.
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 1: Mr. Carl Purdy.]
INTRODUCTORY
Situated on the western verge of the continent, so far removed from the
other parts of our country, not only by great distance, but by those mighty
natural barriers that traverse the continent from north to south,
California is eminently individual in her natural features. Stretching
through nine and one half degrees of latitude, with a sea-coast of seven
hundred miles, and several ranges of fine and lofty mountains, there is
probably not another State in the Union that has so wonderful a diversity
of climate and vegetation. Her shores, bathed by the warm Japan Current, or
Ku-ro Si-wa, which is deflected southward from Alaska, are many degrees
warmer than their latitude alone would warrant.
Her general topography is simple and readily understood. The Sierra Nevada,
or "snowy range," upon the eastern boundary, with its granite summits and
its shoulders clothed with successive belts of majestic coniferous forests,
with an occasional snow-peak towering above the range, forms the eastern
wall of the great Central Valley, which is inclosed upon the west by the
Coast Range, less in height than the Sierra, but equally beautiful, less
forbidding, more companionable. The great Central Valley, four hundred and
fifty miles long, is drained by two rivers, which meet in its center and
break through the Coast Range, delivering their waters to the ocean through
the Golden Gate. The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers receive many
important tributaries from the east, fed by the melting snows of the
Sierras, and flow through one of the most fertile regions of the world.
The Sierras may be divided into five different belts, of varying altitudes
along the length of the range, beginning with the foothill region, which
may be termed the chaparral region. This is succeeded by the yellow-pine
belt, above which is the sugar-pine, or upper forest, belt, which is in
turn succeeded by the sub-alpine, while the alpine dominates all.
The Coast Range is channeled on both sides by many beautiful wooded cañons,
affording homes for some of our loveliest flowers. Mr. Purdy writes of it:
This "is not a continuous range, but a broken mass of parallel ridges from
forty to seventy miles wide, with many other chains transverse to the
general trend of the range, and inclosing numerous valleys, large and
small, of widely different altitudes. In the Coast Range there is no warm
belt, but isolated warm spots. Climate here can only be ascertained by
experience. The geological formation of the ranges and the character of
soils constantly vary, and often widely at short intervals. Hence the flora
of this region is particularly interesting. It is hardly probable there is
a more captivating field for the botanist in the world."
In the north and the south the two great ranges meet in some of the noblest
snow-peaks on the continent. Below their southern junction, to the
eastward, lies an arid desert region, and above their northern junction
extends a dry and elevated plateau to the northeast. Thus there arises a
great diversity of natural condition. As all living organisms are greatly
influenced by their environment, the flora naturally distributes itself
along the lines of climatic variation. Thus we have alpine species on the
snowy heights of the Sierras, and sub-alpine forms luxuriating in the
meadows fed from their snows; inland species in the Central Valley, and
following some distance up its eastern and western walls; the leathery and
hardy forms of the wind-swept coast; the curious prickly races of arid
regions; delicate lovers of the cool and shaded brook; dwellers in marshes
and on lake borders; denizens of dry, rocky hill-slopes, exposed to the
glare of the sun; and inhabiters of shaded woods. It may be said that the
most characteristically Western plants of our flora are to be found in the
Central Valley, in the lower belts of the Sierras, and in the valleys of
the Coast Range, many of which extend beyond our borders, both northward
and southward. Many of our alpine species are common to the East, and our
maritime flora is of necessity somewhat cosmopolitan, containing many
introduced species from various parts of the world.
* * * * *
The climate of California is divided into two seasons--the wet and the
dry,--the former extending from October to May, the latter occupying the
remaining months of the year. And this climatic division coincides almost
exactly with the area of the State. Of course, these dates are not
absolute, as showers may occur beyond their limits.
It will be readily seen that the rainy season, or the winter, so-called, is
the growing time of our year--the time when the earth brings forth every
plant in his kind. On the other hand, the summer is the time of rest. Most
of the plant-life having germinated after the first moisture of the fall,
grows luxuriantly during the showery months of winter, blossoms lavishly in
the balmy sunshine of early springtime, produces seed in abundance by early
summer, and is then ready for its annual rest. Instead of shrouding the
earth in snow during our period of plant-rest, as she does in more rigorous
climes, Nature gently spreads over hill and valley a soft mantle of brown.
When the first shrill notes of the cicada are heard in late spring, we
awake to a sudden realization that summer is at hand, and, looking about
us, we see that the flowers have nearly all vanished; hill and valley no
longer glow with great masses of color; only a few straggling species of
the early summer remain; but they too are soon gone, and soft browns and
straw-colors prevail everywhere. It is then that the deep, rich greens of
our symmetrically rounded Live-Oaks, so characteristic of this region, show
in fine contrast against this delicate background, forming a picture that
every Californian dearly loves; the Madroño and the Laurel spread their
canopies of grateful shade; while the Redwood affords cool retreats from
the summer sun. Then our salt marshes, as though realizing the need of
refreshing verdure, put on their most vivid greens; and our
chaparral-covered hill-slopes make walls of bronze and olive.
* * * * *
Perhaps no coniferous forests in the world are so beautiful or so
attractive as the Redwood forests of our Coast Ranges; and they play so
important a part in the distribution of our plants, it will not be out of
place to devote a little space to them here.
The main Redwood belt is of limited range, extending along the Coast from
Monterey County to Humboldt County, and nowhere exceeding twenty miles in
breadth. Straggling trees may be found beyond these limits, but nowhere a
forest growth or trees of great size. In its densest portion, the stately
and colossal trees are too close together to permit of a wagon passing
between them.
Mr. Purdy writes: "The Redwood is not only a lover of moisture, but to an
extent hardly to be believed, unless seen, a condenser and conserver of
moisture. Their tops reach high into the sea of vapor, and a constant
precipitation from them, like rain, takes place. The water stands in
puddles in the roads under them. This causes the densest of undergrowth;
hazels, huckleberries, various Ceanothi, ferns of large size and in
greatest profusion, large bushes of rhododendron, and numerous other plants
make the forest floor a perfect tangle in moister portions."
Many charming plants find their homes amid the cool shade of these noble
trees. Trillium, and scoliopus, and dog's-tooth violets vie with clintonias
and vancouverias in elegance and grace, while little creeping violets, and
the lovely redwood-sorrel, and the salal make charming tapestries over the
forest floor about these dim cathedral columns.
On the other hand, the open forest belts of the Sierras, which are of far
greater extent, present another and quite different flora from that of the
Coast Range and the Redwood belt. There may be found many interesting
plants of the Heath family--cassiope, bryanthus, chimaphila, ledum, various
pyrolas, and the snow-plant; there the aconite, false hellebore, eriogonums
and gentians, and new and beautiful pentstemons and Mimuli and lilies deck
the meadows and stream-banks.
After the season of blossoming is over in the lowlands, we may pass on up
into the mountains and live again through a vernal springtime of flowers.
Perhaps in no country in the world does the arrival of the spring flowers
"so transform the face of Nature as in California." The march of
civilization has brought changes in its wake; the virgin soil has been
broken and subdued into grainfields and vineyards; still enough of the
lavish blossoming is left us to appreciate Mr. Muir's description of the
face of the country as it appeared years ago. He says: "When California was
wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and
south, and all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the ocean.... The
Great Central Plain ... during the months of March, April, and May was one
smooth, continuous bed of honey-bloom, so marvelously rich that in walking
from one end of it to the other, a distance of four hundred miles, your
foot would press about a hundred flowers at every step. Mints, gilias,
nemophilas, castilleias, and innumerable Compositae were so crowded
together, that had ninety-nine per cent of them been taken away, the plain
would still have seemed to any but Californians extravagantly flowery. The
radiant, honeyful corollas, touching and overlapping and rising above one
another, glowed in the living light like a sunset sky--one sheet of purple
and gold.... Sauntering in any direction, hundreds of these happy
sun-plants brushed against my feet at every step and closed over them as if
I were wading in liquid gold. The air was sweet with fragrance, the larks
sang their blessed songs, rising on the wing as I advanced, then sinking
out of sight in the polleny sod; while myriads of wild bees stirred the
lower air with their monotonous hum--monotonous, yet forever fresh and
sweet as everyday sunshine."
PRELUDE
O LAND OF THE WEST! I know
How the field-flowers bud and blow,
And the grass springs and the grain
To the first soft touch and summons of the rain!
O, the music of the rain!
O, the music of the streams!
--INA D. COOLBRITH.
Toward the end of our long cloudless summer, after most other flowers have
stolen away, Mother Nature marshals her great order of Compositae for a
last rally; and they come as welcome visitants to fill the places of our
vanished summer friends.
Asters and goldenrods, grindelias, lessingias, and the numerous tarweeds,
with their cheerful blossoms, relieve the sober browns of sun-dried
hill-slopes and meadows, or fringe with color our roadsides and salt
marshes.
But even these late-comers weary after a time, and one by one disappear,
till there comes a season when, without flowers, Nature seems to be humbled
in sackcloth and ashes. The dust lies thick upon roadside trees, a haze
hangs like a veil in the air, and the sun beats down with fierce, continued
glare.
As this wears on day after day, a certain vague expectancy creeps gradually
over the face of things--a rapt, mysterious aspect, foreboding change. One
day there is a telltale clarity in the atmosphere. Later, the sky darkens
by degrees, and a dull, leaden hue spreads over the vault of heaven.
Nature mourns, and would weep. Her heart is full to bursting; still the
tears come not. The winds spring up and blow freshly over the parched land.
A few hard-wrung drops begin to fall, and at length there closes down a
thoroughgoing shower. The flood-gates are opened at last; the long tension
is over, and we breathe freely once more.