_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.
[Illustration 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."
[Illustration 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.
_OEnothera 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
_OEnothera_ 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.
[Illustration WHITE EVENING PRIMROSE--_OEnothera 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 papillae. _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.
[Illustration 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.