producing in early May its enormous white or violet-tinged funnels, which
are sometimes ten inches long. It resembles the common Jamestown-weed, of
which it is a near relative, but may be distinguished by its large flower
and its cylindrical calyx, which is not angled. It shares with the
Jamestown-weed its narcotic poisonous qualities, and is a famous plant
among our Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that they bruise and boil the root in
water, and when the infusion thus made is cold, they drink it to produce a
stupefying effect. In a different degree they administer it to their young
dancing women as a powerful stimulant, and before going into battle the
warriors take it to produce a martial frenzy in themselves.
[Illustration HAIRBELL--_Calochortus albus._]
By the Piutes it is called "main-oph-weep." The specific name,
_meteloides_, indicates the resemblance of this plant to _Datura Metel_, of
India.
YERBA SANTA. MOUNTAIN BALM.
_Eriodictyon glutinosum_, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.
Shrubby; three to five feet high. _Leaves._--Thick; glutinous;
smooth above; light beneath, with prominent net-veining; three
to six inches long. _Flowers._--Purple, violet, or white.
_Calyx._--Five-parted. _Corolla._--Six lines long; four lines
across. _Stamens._--Five; alternate with the corolla-lobes.
_Ovary._--Two-celled. Styles two. _Hab._--Western California;
common on dry hills.
The bitter, aromatic leaves of the yerba santa are a highly valued,
domestic remedy for colds, and many old-fashioned people would not be
without it.
Dr. Bard, one of our most eminent physicians, writes of this interesting
little shrub: "It has been reserved for the Californian Indian to furnish
three of the most valuable vegetable additions which have been made to the
pharmacopoeia during the last twenty years. One, the _Eriodictyon
glutinosum_, growing profusely in our foothills, was used by them in
affections of the respiratory tract, and its worth was so appreciated by
the missionaries that they named it yerba santa, or holy plant."
The other plants referred to by Dr. Bard are the _Rhamnus_, or _Cascara
sagrada_, and the _Grindelia_. In the mountains of Mariposa County, it is
known as "wild peach," probably because the leaf somewhat resembles the
peach-leaf.
Dr. Behr writes that considerable quantities of it are exported, partly for
medicinal purposes, and partly as a harmless and agreeable substitute for
hops in the brewing of certain varieties of beer, especially porter.
In Ventura County this passes by insensible gradations into _E.
tomentosum_, Benth., and there it is difficult to distinguish clearly
between the two species.
[Illustration YERBA SANTA--_Eriodictyon glutinosum._]
_E. tomentosum_, Benth., is found from San Diego probably to Santa Barbara.
This comely shrub is so disguised in its woolly coat that one does not at
first detect its close relationship to the more common yerba santa. Its
broad, oval leaves, ribbed like the chestnut and closely notched, and its
generous clusters of unusually large violet flowers, serve to bewilder us
for the moment. The wool upon the foliage gives it a gray-green tone,
harmonizing perfectly with the violet flowers. It is specially abundant all
over the mesas by the seashore, near San Diego.
ALUM-ROOT.
_Heuchera micrantha_, Dougl. Saxifrage Family.
_Rootstock._--Stout. _Leaves._--All radical; two to four inches
long. Scapes.--Often two feet high. _Flowers._--White; minute;
in loose panicles. _Calyx._--Five-toothed; one or two lines
long. _Petals._--Five; one line long; on the sinuses of the
calyx. _Stamens._--Five. _Ovary._--One-celled. Styles two.
_Hab._--Coast Ranges and Sierras from Monterey to British
Columbia.
Upon almost any drive or walk along a shaded road, we may find the
alum-root hanging over a mossy bank. Its large, airy panicle is composed of
minute flowers, and appears in early summer. But it is more conspicuous for
its exquisite foliage than for its flowers. The leaves are usually mottled
in light green and richly veined in dark brown or red, and they often turn
to a rich red later in the season.
The root is woody and astringent, to which latter fact the plant owes its
English name, which it shares with the other members of the genus. These
are very satisfactory plants to bring in from the woods, because they
remain beautiful in water for many weeks.
[Illustration ALUM-ROOT--_Heuchera micrantha._]
CHAMISAL. CHAMISO. GREASEWOOD.
_Adenostoma fasciculatum_, Hook. and Arn. Rose Family.
Shrubs two to twenty feet high, with gray, shreddy bark and
reddish, slender branches. _Leaves._--Two to four lines long;
linear to awl-shaped; smooth; clustered. Stipules small; acute.
_Flowers._--White; two lines across; in terminal racemose
panicles. _Calyx._--Five-toothed; with bracts below resembling
another calyx; tube ten-ribbed. _Petals._--Five.
_Stamens._--Ten to fifteen; in clusters between the petals.
_Ovary._--One-celled. _Fruit._--A dry akene. _Hab._--Widely
distributed.
The chamisal forms a large part of the chaparral of our mountain slopes,
and when not in bloom gives to them much the aspect imparted to the Scotch
Highlands by the heather. It is an evergreen shrub, with small clustered,
needle-like leaves. In late spring it is covered with large, feathery
panicles of tiny white blossoms, which show with particular effectiveness
against the rich olive of its foliage, and furnish the bees with valuable
honey material for a considerable season. When interspersed with shrubs of
livelier greens, it gives to our hill-slopes and mountain-sides a
wonderfully rich and varied character. In the summer of a season when it
has flowered freely, the cinnamon-colored seed-vessels blending with the
olives of the foliage lend a rich, warm bronze to whole hillsides, forming
a charming contrast to the straw tints and russets of grassy slopes, and
adding another to the many soft harmonies of our summer landscape. It is
most abundant in the Coast Ranges, where, in some localities, it covers
mile after mile of hill-slopes, with its close-cropped, uniform growth.
When the chaparral, or dense shrubby growth of our mountain-sides, is
composed entirely of _Adenostoma_, it is called chamisal.
Another species, _A. sparsifolium_, Torr., found in the south, and somewhat
resembling the above, may be known from it by its lack of stipules, its
scattered, not clustered leaves, which are obtuse and not pointed, and its
somewhat larger flowers, each one pediceled.
This is commonly known among the Spanish-Californians as "Yerba del
Pasmo," literally the "herb of the convulsion," and among them and the
Indians it is a sovereign remedy for many ailments, being considered
excellent for colds, cramps, and snakebites, and an infallible cure for
tetanus, or lockjaw. The foliage fried in grease becomes a healing
ointment.
The bark of this species is reddish and hangs in shreds.
HOLLY-LEAVED CHERRY. ISLAY.
_Prunus ilicifolia_, Walp. Rose Family.
Evergreen shrubs or small trees; eight to thirty feet high.
_Leaves._--Alternate; holly-like; an inch or two long.
_Flowers._--White; three lines across; in racemes eighteen
lines to three inches long. _Calyx._--Five-cleft.
_Petals._--Five; spreading. _Stamens._--Twelve to twenty-five.
_Ovary._--Solitary; one-celled. Style terminal. _Fruit._--A
dark red cherry, becoming black; six lines in diameter.
_Hab._--Coast Ranges, San Francisco into Lower California.
The holly-leaved cherry is a very ornamental shrub, with its shining,
prickly evergreen leaves, and it is coming more and more into favor for
cultivation, especially as a hedge-shrub. In its natural state it attains
its greatest perfection in the mountains near Santa Barbara and southward.
On dry hills it is only a shrub, but in the rich soil of cañon bottoms it
becomes a tree. Some of the finest specimens are to be found in the gardens
of the old missions, where they have been growing probably a century.
Dr. Behr tells us that the foliage, in withering, develops hydrocyanic
acid, the odor of which is quite perceptible. The leaves are then poisonous
to sheep and cattle.
The shrubs are especially beautiful in spring, after they have made their
new growth of bright green at the ends of the branches, and put forth a
profusion of feathery bloom. The blossoms have the pleasant, bitter
fragrance of the cultivated cherry, and attract myriads of bees, who make
the region vocal with their busy hum. The fruit, which ripens from
September to December, is disappointing, owing to its very thin pulp,
though its astringent and acid flavor is not unpleasant.
It was used by the aborigines as food, however, and made into an
intoxicating drink by fermentation. The meat of the stones ground and made
into balls constituted a delicate morsel with them.
YERBA BUENA.
_Micromeria Douglasii_, Benth. Mint Family.
Aromatic trailing vines. _Stems._--Slender; one to four feet
long. _Leaves._--One inch long; round-ovate.
_Flowers._--Solitary; axillary; white or purplish.
_Calyx._--Five-toothed; two lines long. _Corolla._--Five lines
long; bilabiate. _Stamens._--Four; in pairs on the corolla.
_Ovary._--Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma
unevenly two-lipped. _Hab._--Vancouver Island to Los Angeles
County.
The yerba buena is as dear to the Californian as the Mayflower to the New
Englander, and is as intimately associated with the early traditions of
this Western land as is that delicate blossom with the stormy past of the
Pilgrim Fathers. Its delicious, aromatic perfume seems in some subtle way
to link those early days of the Padres with our own, and to call up visions
of the long, low, rambling mission buildings of adobe, with their
picturesque red-tiled roofs; the flocks and herds tended by gentle
shepherds in cowls; and the angelus sounding from those quaint belfries,
and vibrating in ever-widening circles over hill and vale.
Before the coming of the Mission Fathers, the Indians used this little
herb, placing great faith in its medicinal virtues, so that the Padres
afterward bestowed upon it the name of "yerba buena"--"the good herb." It
is still used among our Spanish-Californians in the form of a tea, both as
a pleasant beverage and as a febrifuge, and also as a remedy for
indigestion and other disorders.
They designate this as "Yerba Buena del Campo"--_i.e._ the wild or field
yerba buena,--to distinguish it from the "Yerba Buena del Poso"--"the herb
of the well,"--which is the common garden-mint growing in damp places.
Aside from its associations and medicinal virtues, this is a charming
little plant. In half-shaded woods its long, graceful stems make a trailing
interlacement upon the ground and yield up their minty fragrance as we
pass.
[Illustration YERBA BUENA--_Micromeria Douglasii_.]
MATILIJA POPPY.
_Romneya Coulteri_, Harv. Poppy Family.
_Stems._--Numerous; two to fifteen feet high.
_Leaves._--Alternate; petioled; the lower pinnatifid; the upper
pinnately cut into long narrow segments; glaucous; three to
five inches long; smooth. _Flowers._--Solitary; six to nine
inches across. _Sepals._--Three; strongly arched, covered with
bristly appressed hairs; caducous. _Petals._--Six; white.
_Stamens._--Very numerous. Filaments filiform; yellow, purple
below. _Ovary._--Seven- to eleven-celled. Stigmas several.
_Hab._--Santa Barbara to San Diego.
The Matilija poppy (pronounced ma-til'li-ha) must be conceded the queen of
all our flowers. It is not a plant for small gardens, but the fitting
adornment of a large park, where it can have space and light and air to
rear its imperial stems and shake out its great diaphanous flowers. It is
one of the most wonderful of wild flowers, and it is difficult to believe
that nature, without the aid of a careful gardener, should have produced
such a miracle of loveliness. It is justly far-famed, and by English
gardeners, who now grow it successfully, it is regarded as a priceless
treasure, and people go from many miles around to see it when it blooms. It
is to be regretted that our flowers must go abroad to find their warmest
admirers.
This plant was named in honor of Dr. Romney Robinson, a famous astronomer.
Its common name was given it because it grows in particular abundance in
the Matilija Cañon, some miles above Ventura in the mountains. Many people
have the mistaken idea that it grows only in that region. It is not common,
by any means; but it is found in scattered localities from Santa Barbara
southward into Mexico. It is very abundant near Riverside, and also upon
the southern boundary and below in Lower California, where the plants cover
large areas. It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion
of remote cañons, and nothing more magnificent could be imagined than a
steep cañon-side covered with the great bushy plants, thickly sown with the
enormous white flowers.
The round buds (which, however, are sometimes pointed) are closely wrapped
in three overlapping hairy sepals. These gradually open, and at dawn the
buds unfurl their crumpled petals to the day, exhaling a pleasant
fragrance. The blossoms remain open for many days.
[Illustration MATILIJA POPPY--_Romneya Coulteri_.]
These plants have long been in use among the Indians of Lower California,
who esteem them highly for their medicinal qualities. The seeds require a
long period for germination, and they have been known to come at the end of
two years. The better method of propagation is from root-cuttings.
The plant has been called "Mission poppy" and "Giant Californian white
poppy," but the pretty Indian name cannot be improved upon.
WHITE SAGE. GREASEWOOD.
_Audibertia polystachya_, Benth. Mint Family.
Shrubby, three to ten feet high; many-stemmed.
_Leaves._--Opposite; lanceolate; narrowing into a petiole;
several inches long. _Flowers._--White or pale lavender, in
loose panicles a foot or two long. _Calyx._--Tubular;
bilabiate. _Corolla._--About six lines long, with short tube
and bilabiate border. Upper lip small; erect. Lower lip
three-lobed; the middle lobe large. _Stamens._--Two; jointed.
_Ovary._--Of four seedlike nutlets. Style slender. Stigma
two-cleft. _Hab._--Santa Barbara to San Diego.
The classic honey of Hymettus could not have been clearer or more wholesome
than that distilled by the bees from the white sage of Southern California,
which has become justly world-renowned. The plants cover extensive reaches
of valley and hill-slopes, and are often called "greasewood."
Certain it is that the white stems have a very greasy, gummy feel and a
rank, aggressive odor. In spring the long, coarse, sparsely leafy branches
begin to rise from the woody base, often making the slopes silvery; and by
May these have fully developed their loose, narrow panicles of pale flowers
and yellowish buds.
The structure of these blossoms is very interesting. The long, prominent
lower lip curves downward and upward and backward upon itself, like a
swan's neck, while the two stamens rising from its surface lift themselves
like two long horns, and the style curves downward.
A bee arriving at this flower naturally brushes against the stigma, leaving
upon it some of the pollen gained from another flower. Then alighting upon
the lower lip, his weight bends it downward, and he grasps the stamens as
convenient handles, thus drawing the anthers toward his body, where the
pollen is dusted upon his coat as he probes beneath the closed upper lip
for the honey in the depths of the tube. The various sages of the south
have a very interesting way of hybridizing.
CASCARA SAGRADA. CALIFORNIA COFFEE.
_Rhamnus Californica_, Esch. Buckthorn Family.
_Shrubs._--Four to eighteen feet high. _Leaves._--Alternate;
elliptic to oblong; denticulate or entire; leathery; one to
four inches long; six to eighteen lines wide.
_Flowers._--Clustered; greenish white; small.
_Calyx._--Five-toothed. _Petals._--Five; minute; on the sinuses
of the calyx; each clasping a stamen. _Ovary._--Two- to
four-celled. Style short. _Fruit._--Berry-like; black; four to
six lines long; containing two or three nutlets, like
coffee-beans. _Hab._--Throughout California.
Long before the advent of the Spanish, the medicinal virtues of this shrub
were known to the Indians, who used it as a remedy for rheumatism and,
according to Dr. Bard, to correct the effects of an acorn diet. The Mission
Fathers afterward came to appreciate its worth so highly that they bestowed
upon it the name _Cascara sagrada_, or the "sacred bark." Since those early
days the fame of it has spread the world around. No more valuable laxative
is known to the medical world to-day, and every year great quantities of it
are exported from our shores. Though the shrub is found as far south as San
Diego, the bark is not gathered in any quantity south of Monterey, as it
becomes too thin southward. The shrub goes under a variety of names,
according to the locality in which it is found.
In Monterey County it is known as "yellow-boy" or "yellow-root," and in
Sonoma County it becomes "pigeon-berry," because the berry is a favorite
food of the wild pigeons, and lends to their flesh a bitter taste.
Some years ago quite an excitement prevailed in the State when some
visionary persons believed they had found a perfect substitute for coffee
in the seeds of this shrub. To be sure, they do somewhat resemble the
coffee-bean in form, but the resemblance goes no further; for upon a
careful analysis they revealed none of the qualities of coffee, nor upon
roasting did they exhale its aroma. After much discussion of the matter and
the laying out in imagination of extensive, natural coffee-plantations upon
our wild hill-slopes, these hopeful people were destined to see their
project fall in ruins.
This shrub is very variable, according to the locality where it grows.
Under shade, the leaves become herbaceous and ample, and as we go northward
that becomes the prevailing type, and is then called _R. Purshiana_, DC. It
is then often very large, having a trunk the size of a man's body. In
Oregon it is known as "chittemwood" and "bitter bark," and also as "wahoo"
and "bear-wood." The _var. tomentella_, Brew. and Wats., is densely
white-tomentose, especially on the under surfaces of the leaves.
EVERLASTING FLOWER. CUDWEED. LADY'S TOBACCO.
_Gnaphalium decurrens_, Ives. Composite Family
Viscid-glandular under the loose hairs. _Flower-heads._--In
densely crowded, flattish clusters. _Involucre._--Campanulate;
of very numerous, scarious, yellowish-white, oval scales.
(Otherwise similar to _Anaphalis Margaritacea_.) _Hab._--From
San Diego through Oregon.
The common everlasting flower, or cudweed, is plentiful upon our dry hills,
blooming in early summer, where its white clusters are conspicuous objects
amid the drying vegetation. In our rural districts it is believed that
sleeping upon a pillow made of these flowers will cure catarrhal
affections.
_G. Sprengelii_, Hook. and Arn., may be known from the above by its densely
gray, woolly herbage, which is not glandular-viscid. It is also common
throughout the State.
The beautiful edelweiss of the Alps is a species of _Gnaphalium_, _G.
leontopodium_.
CALIFORNIAN BUCKEYE. CALIFORNIAN HORSE-CHESTNUT.
_AEsculus Californica_, Nutt. Maple or Soapberry Family.
Shrubs or trees ten to forty feet high. _Leaves._--Opposite;
petioled; with five palmate, stalked leaflets.
_Leaflets._--Oblong; acute; three to five inches long;
serrulate. _Flowers._--White; in a thyrse a foot long; many of
them imperfect. _Calyx._--Tubular; two-lobed. _Petals._--Four
or five; six lines or more long; unequal. _Stamens._--Five to
seven; exserted. Anthers buff. _Ovary._--Three-celled.
_Nuts._--One to three inches in diameter; usually one in the
pod. _Hab._--Coast Ranges of Middle California; also the Sierra
foothills.
Our Californian buckeye is closely allied to the horse-chestnuts and
buckeyes of the eastern half of the continent. It is usually found upon
stream-banks or the side-walls of cañons, and reaches its greatest
perfection in the valleys of our central Coast Ranges. It usually branches
low into a number of clean, round, light-gray limbs, which widen out into a
broad, dense, rounded head. Its leaves are fully developed before the
flowers appear. When in full bloom, in May, it is considered one of the
most beautiful of all our American species. Its long, white flower-spikes,
sprinkled rather regularly over the green mound of foliage, are very
suggestive of a neat calico print. Early to come, the leaves are as early
to depart, and by midsummer the beautiful skeleton is often bare, its
interlacing twigs making a delicate network against the deep azure of the
sky.
Though lavish in its production of flowers, usually but one or two of the
large cluster succeed in maturing fruit. By October and November the
leathery pods begin to yield up their big golden-brown nuts, which are
great favorites among the squirrels. The Indians are said to resort to
these nuts in times of famine. Before using them, they roast them a day or
two in the ground, to extract the poison.
The inner wood of the root, after being kiln-cured for several weeks,
becomes very valuable to the cabinet-maker. It is then of an exquisite
mottled green, and when highly polished can hardly be distinguished from a
fine piece of onyx.
PUSSY'S-PAWS.
_Spraguea umbellata_, Torr. Purslane Family.
_Radical-leaves._--Spatulate or oblanceolate; six lines to four
inches long. _Stem-leaves._--Similar, but smaller, often
reduced to a few bracts. _Scapes._--Several; two to twelve
inches high. _Flowers._--In dense spikes. _Sepals._--Two;
orbicular; thin; papery; two to four lines across; whitish;
equaling the petals. _Petals._--Four; rose-color.
_Stamens._--Three. _Ovary._--One-celled. Style bifid.
_Hab._--The Sierras, from the Yosemite to British Columbia.
Pussy's-paws is a very plentiful plant in the Sierras, usually growing upon
dry, rocky soil. It varies much in aspect, sometimes sending up a stout,
erect flower-scape, and again growing low and matlike with its prostrate
flower-stems radiating from the center. It blooms from early summer onward,
often almost covering the ground with its blossoms. The flower-clusters
grow in a bunch, much like the pink cushions on pussy's feet, whence the
pretty common name.
SPANISH BAYONET. OUR LORD'S CANDLE.
_Yucca Whipplei_, Torr. Lily Family.
Without a trunk. _Leaves._--All radical in a bristling
hemisphere; sword-like. _Flower-panicles._--Distaff-shaped;
three or more feet long; at the summit of a leafless bracteate
scape, ten or fifteen feet high. _Perianth._--Rotately
spreading; waxen-white (sometimes rich purple), often green- or
purple-nerved. _Filaments._--Clavate; pure white. Anthers
transverse; yellow. Style very thick; three-angled. Stigma
stalked; green; covered with tiny prominences. _Fruit._--A dry
capsule. (Structure otherwise as in _Y. Mohavensis_.)
_Hab._--Monterey to San Diego and eastward.
In spring and early summer the chaparral-covered hillsides of Southern
California present a wonderful appearance when hundreds of these Spanish
bayonets are in bloom. From day to day the waxen tapers on the distant
slopes increase in height as the white bells climb the slender shafts. At
length each cluster reaches its perfection, and becomes a solid distaff of
sometimes two--yes, even six--thousand of the waxen blossoms!
[Illustration PUSSY'S-PAWS--_Spraguea umbellata_.]
A friend writing of them, once said: "Nearly every poetaster in the country
has sung the praises of the yellow poppies and the sweet little
_Nemophilas_, but not one, so far as I know, has ever written a stanza to
these grand white soldiers and their hundred swords." There is, indeed,
something glorious and warlike about them, as they marshal themselves to
the defense of our hillsides.
This surpasses all known species in the height and beauty of its
flower-panicles; but, once the season of flowering and fruiting has been
consummated, its life mission is fulfilled, and the plant dies. The dead
stalks remain standing sometimes for years upon the mountain-sides.