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.
[Illustration 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 _Leguminosae_.) _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; monoecious. _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.
[Illustration _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.
"By scattered rocks and turbid waters shifting,
By furrowed glade and dell,
To feverish men thy calm, sweet face uplifting,
Thou stayest them to tell
"The delicate thought that cannot find expression--
For ruder speech too fair,--
That, like thy petals, trembles in possession,
And scatters on the air."
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--
"Through root and fiber cleaves--
And on the muddy current slowly drifting
Are swept thy bruised leaves.
"And yet, O poet! in thy homely fashion,
Thy work thou dost fulfill;
For on the turbid current of his passion
Thy face is shining still."
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."
[Illustration 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.
[Illustration 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.
[Illustration 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.
Captain of the Western wood,
Thou that apest Robin Hood!
Green above thy scarlet hose,
How thy velvet mantle shows;
Never tree like thee arrayed,
O thou gallant of the glade!
When the fervid August sun
Scorches all it looks upon,
And the balsam of the pine
Drips from stem to needle fine,
Round thy compact shade arranged,
Not a leaf of thee is changed!
When the yellow autumn sun
Saddens all it looks upon,
Spreads its sackcloth on the hills,
Strews its ashes in the rills,
Thou thy scarlet hose dost doff,
And in limbs of purest buff
Challengest the somber glade
For a sylvan masquerade.
Where, oh where shall he begin
Who would paint thee, Harlequin?
With thy waxen, burnished leaf,
With thy branches' red relief,
With thy poly-tinted fruit,
In thy spring or autumn suit,--
Where begin, and oh, where end,--
Thou whose charms all art transcend?
--BRET HARTE.
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.