into flour by the Indians; and from the leaves they obtain a soft, white
fiber, which they use in making the linings of the coarse saddle-blankets
they weave from _Yucca Mohavensis_. The undeveloped flowering shoots they
consider a great delicacy, either raw or prepared as mescal. They gather
great numbers of the plants when just at the right stage, and strip off the
leaves, leaving round masses. These they prepare after the manner of a
clam-bake, and when the pile is pulled to pieces and the mescal is taken
out, it has a faint resemblance to a baked sweet apple, and is of about the
same consistency. The whole mass is a mixture of sweet, soft pulp and
coarse white fibers much like manilla rope-yarn.
RUBY LILY. CHAPARRAL LILY. REDWOOD LILY.
_Lilium rubescens_, Wats. Lily Family.
_Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from Marin County to Humboldt County.
This is the most charming of all our Californian lilies, even surpassing in
loveliness the beautiful Washington lily; and it is said to be the most
fragrant of any in the world. It resembles the Washington lily; but its
flowers are fuller in form, with wider petals and shorter tube, and it has
a smaller bulb. It sends up a noble shaft, sometimes seven feet high, with
many scattered whorls of undulate leaves, and often bears at the summit as
many as twenty-five of the beautiful flowers. These are at first pure
white, dotted with purple, but they soon take on a metallic luster and
begin to turn to a delicate pink, which gradually deepens into a ruby
purple. Mr. Purdy mentions having seen a plant with a stalk nine feet high,
bearing thirty-six flowers.
[Illustration RUBY LILY--_Lilium rubescens_.]
The favorite haunts of this lily are high and inaccessible ridges, among
the chaparral, or under the live-oak or redwood. Comparatively few people
know of its existence, though living within a few miles of it, because they
rarely ever visit these out-of-the-way fastnesses of nature.
Mr. Burroughs has somewhere said: "Genius is a specialty; it does not grow
in every soil, it skips the many and touches the few; and the gift of
perfume to a flower is a special grace, like genius or like beauty, and
never becomes common or cheap." Certainly these blossoms have been richly
endowed with this charming gift, and their delicious fragrance wafted by
the wind often betrays their presence upon a hillside when unsuspected
before, so that one skilled in woodcraft can often trace them by it.
THISTLE-POPPY. CHICALOTE.
_Argemone platyceras_, Link and Otto. Poppy Family.
_Stems._--One to two and one half feet high; hispid throughout,
or armed with rigid bristles or prickles. Sap yellow.
_Leaves._--Thistle-like; three to six inches long.
_Flowers._--White; two to four inches in diameter.
_Sepals._--Three; spinosely beaked. _Petals._--Four to six.
_Stamens._--Numerous. Filaments slender. _Ovary._--Oblong;
one-celled. Stigma three- or four-lobed. Capsule very prickly.
_Hab._--Dry hillsides from Central California southward.
The thistle-poppy would be considered in any other country a surpassingly
beautiful flower, with its large diaphanous white petals and its thistly
gray-green foliage, but in California it must yield precedence to the
Matilija poppy. It resembles the latter very closely in its flower, and is
often mistaken for it. It may be known by its yellow juice, its prickly
foliage, and its very prickly capsules. I believe the flowers are somewhat
more cup-shaped than those of _Romneya_.
It affects dry hill-slopes and valleys, often otherwise barren, where it
grows luxuriantly, and sometimes attains a height of six feet, being in
full bloom in May. There, where one is unprepared for such a sight, it
becomes an object of startling beauty.
* * * * *
_Malacothrix saxatilis_, Torr. and Gray. Composite Family.
_Stems._--Stout; a foot or two high; woody.
_Leaves._--Lanceolate to spatulate; one or two inches long;
entire or pinnatifid; somewhat succulent.
_Flower-heads._--Terminating the paniculate branches; large;
two inches or so across; white, changing to rose or lilac; of
ray-flowers only. _Involucre._--Campanulate or hemispherical;
six lines high, with many imbricated scales passing downward
into loose, awl-shaped bracts. _Hab._--The Coast, from Santa
Barbara southward.
This beautiful plant is a dweller upon the ocean cliffs, and may be seen in
abundance from the car-windows just before the train reaches Santa Barbara
going north. The stems are woody and very leafy, and the plants are usually
covered all over the top with the showy flower-heads.
_M. tenuifolia_, Torr. and Gray, is a very tall, slender, sparsely leafy
plant with fragile, airy white flowers. This is common along the dusty
roadsides of the south in early summer.
SALAL. WINTERGREEN.
_Gaultheria Shallon_, Pursh. Heath Family.
Shrubby, and one to three or more feet high or prostrate.
_Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; ovate to elliptical;
pointed; two to four inches long; leathery; bristle-toothed
when young; evergreen. _Flowers._--Manzanita-like; slenderer;
glandular-viscid; white or pinkish. _Ovary._--Five-celled.
Style single. _Fruit._--Black; berry-like; aromatic; edible.
(Otherwise like _Arctostaphylos Manzanita_.) _Hab._--Coast
woods, from Santa Barbara County to British Columbia.
The floor of the redwood forest in our northern coast counties is often
carpeted with this little undershrub, while in other places one can wade
waist-deep in it. It grows much larger north of us, and upon Vancouver
Island it forms dense, impenetrable thickets. Its dark-purple berries have
a very agreeable flavor, and form an important article of diet among the
Oregon Indians, who call them "salal."
CALIFORNIAN SPIKENARD.
_Aralia Californica_, Wats. Ginseng Family.
_Root._--Thick; aromatic. _Stems._--Eight to ten feet high.
_Leaves._--Bipinnate; or the upper pinnate, with one or two
pairs of leaflets. _Leaflets._--Cordate-ovate; four to eight
inches long; serrate. _Flowers._--White; two lines long; in
globular umbels, arranged in loose panicles a foot or two long.
Pedicels four to six lines long. _Calyx._--Five-toothed or
entire. _Petals and Stamens._--Five. _Ovary._--Two- to
five-celled. Styles united to the middle. _Fruit._--A purple
berry. _Hab._--Widely distributed; on stream-banks.
In moist, cool ravines, where the sun only slants athwart the branches and
a certain dankness always lingers, the Californian spikenard scents the air
with its peculiar odor. It closely resembles _A. racemosa_ of the Eastern
States, but it is a larger, coarser plant in every way. It throws up its
tall stems with a fine confidence that there will be ample space for its
large leaves to spread themselves uncrowded. Its feathery panicles of white
flowers are followed by clusters of small purple berries, and are rather
more delicate than we should expect from so large a plant.
YERBA MANSA.
_Anemopsis Californica_, Hook. Yerba Mansa Family.
Rootstock creeping. _Radical-leaves._--Long-petioled; elliptic
oblong; two to ten inches long. _Stems._--Six inches to two
feet high. _Flowers._--Without sepals and petals, sunk in a
conical spike; six to eighteen lines long; a small white bract
under each flower. _Spikes._--Subtended by from five to eight
white petal-like bracts, six to fifteen lines long.
_Stamens._--Three to eight. _Ovary._--Apparently one-celled.
Stigmas one to five. _Hab._--Southern to Central California.
Just as the fervid glow of the sun is beginning to transform the green of
our southern hill-slopes to soft browns, the still vividly green lowland
meadows suddenly bring forth myriads of white stars, which in their green
setting become grateful resting-points for the eye. These are the blossoms
of the famous _Yerba Mansa_ of the Spanish-Californians. Among these people
the plant is an infallible remedy for many disorders, and so highly do they
prize it, that they often travel or send long distances for it.
[Illustration YERBA MANSA--_Anemopsis Californica_.]
The aromatic root, which has a strong, peppery taste, is very astringent,
and when made into a tea or a powder, is applied with excellent results to
cuts and sores. The tea is also taken as a blood-purifier; and the plant,
in the form of a wash or poultice, is used for rheumatism, while the wilted
leaves are said to reduce swellings. In the medical world it is beginning
to be used in diseases of the mucous membrane.
SHEPHERD'S PURSE.
_Capsella Bursa-pastoris_, Medic. Mustard Family.
Among our commonest and most harmless weeds is the shepherd's purse, which
has been introduced from Europe in the past. It may be easily recognized by
its tiny white cruciferous flowers and its shapely little triangular, flat
pods, which have a peppery taste. It is used medicinally, and valued as a
remedy for many different maladies. In Europe, a common name for the plant
is "mother's heart," and Mr. Johnston says that children play a sort of
game with the seed-pouch. "They hold it out to their companions, inviting
them to 'take a haud o' that.' It immediately cracks, and then follows a
triumphant shout, 'You've broken your mother's heart!'"
Equally common is the _Lepidium_, or pepper-grass, the small round, flat
pods of which also have a peppery taste. Both of these belong to the great
Mustard family.
MARIPOSA TULIP.
_Calochortus venustus_, Benth. (and varieties). Lily Family.
_Stems._--A foot or two high; branching. _Leaves._--Narrow;
grasslike; channeled; glaucous; decumbent. _Flowers._--Erect;
cup-shaped; white, lilac, pink, claret, magenta, purple, or
rarely light yellow; of uniform color or shaded; plain or
variously oculated, stained, or blotched. _Petals._--One or two
inches long; slightly hairy below. _Gland._--Large; roundish;
densely hairy. _Capsule._--Lanceolate; four or five lines
broad. (See _Calochortus_.) _Hab._--Dry sandy soil, in the
Coast Ranges and Sierra foothills, from Mendocino County to Los
Angeles.
[Illustration MARIPOSA TULIP--_Calochortus venustus_.]
I once emerged from the dense chaparral of a steep hillside upon a grassy
slope, where myriads of these lovely flowers tossed their delicate cups
upon the breeze. As I passed from flower to flower, I noticed many insect
guests regaling themselves upon the nectar. Bees and flies jostled one
another and crawled amid the hairs below, and beautifully mottled
butterflies hovered over them.
As originally described, this flower was white or pale lilac, with a more
or less conspicuous, usually reddish, stain, or blotch, near the top, a
brownish spot bordered with yellow in the center, and a brownish striate
base. But it varies so widely from this type, in both color and spots, that
neither is a reliable character from which to determine the species. Some
of the oculated forms of _C. luteus_ are so similar that they are readily
confused with this, but a careful examination of the gland and the form of
the capsule, together with the character of the soil in which the plants
grow, will identify the species.
COMMON NIGHTSHADE.
_Solanum nigrum_, L. Nightshade Family.
_Hab._--Along streams near the coast.
This may be easily distinguished from _S. Xanti_ by its very small white
flowers, whose corollas are but three or four lines across, and much more
deeply and pointedly lobed, the lobes having a tendency to turn backward as
the flowers grow older; also by its thinner, duller leaves, and much
smaller, black berries, the size of peas.
It is considered a violent narcotic poison, both berries and leaves having
caused death when eaten. It is used in the medical world, in the form of a
tincture for various maladies, and it is said that in Bohemia the
blossoming plant is hung over the cradles of infants to induce sweet
slumber; while in Dalmatia the root is fried in butter and eaten to produce
sleep, and is also used as remedy for hydrophobia.
_Solanum Douglasii_, Dunal, is a similar species, with larger flowers,
which are usually white, though sometimes light blue.
BUTTERFLY TULIP.
_Calochortus luteus, var. oculatus_, Wats. Lily Family.
_Hab._--Sierras and Coast Ranges, from Fresno County to Oregon.
Of all our lovely Mariposa tulips, this charming form is perhaps the most
like the insect for which it is named. Its creamy or purplish flowers have
an exquisitely tinted dark-maroon eye, surrounded by yellow, and it is
often streaked in marvelous imitation of the insect's wing. It was
doubtless this form Miss Coolbrith had in mind when she wrote the beautiful
lines below:
"Insect or blossom? Fragile, fairy thing,
Poised upon slender tip and quivering
To flight! a flower of the fields of air;
A jeweled moth, a butterfly with rare
And tender tints upon his downy wing
A moment resting in our happy sight;
A flower held captive by a thread so slight
Its petal-wings of broidered gossamer
Are, light as the wind, with every wind astir,
Wafting sweet odor, faint and exquisite.
O dainty nursling of the field and sky!
What fairer thing looks up to heaven's blue,
And drinks the noontide sun, the dawning's dew?
Thou winged bloom! thou blossom butterfly!"
WESTERN BOYKINIA.
_Boykinia occidentalis_, Torr. and Gray. Saxifrage Family.
_Stems._--Slender; a foot or two high.
_Leaves._--Round-reniform; palmately three- to seven-lobed; one
to three inches broad; the lobes coarsely toothed.
_Flowers._--In long-peduncled, loose panicles; white; four
lines across; parts in fives. _Calyx._--With acute teeth.
_Petals._--On the sinuses of the calyx. _Stamens._--On the
calyx, opposite its teeth. Filaments short. _Ovary._--With its
two cells attenuate into the slender styles. _Hab._--Coast
Ranges, from Santa Barbara to Washington.
The tufted leaves, and exquisitely delicate saxifrage-like clusters of the
_Boykinia_, fringe our streams in early summer.
SOAP-PLANT. AMOLE.
_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_, Kunth. Lily Family.
_Bulb._--One to four inches in diameter; densely brown-fibrous.
_Leaves._--Six to eighteen inches long. _Scape._--One to five
feet high; bearing a loosely spreading panicle.
_Perianth._--White; of six spreading, recurved segments nine
lines long. _Stamens._--Six; shorter than the segments.
_Ovary._--Three-celled. Style filiform. Stigma three-lobed.
_Hab._--Widely distributed.
The leaves of the soap-plant have been with us all the spring, increasing
in length as the season has advanced. You can easily recognize them, as
they resemble a broad, wavy-margined grass, usually lying flat upon the
ground, with some of the ragged brown fibres of the bulb showing
aboveground, like the fragment of an old manilla mat.
In early summer, from their midst begins to shoot a slender stalk. When the
process of its growth is complete, it stands from two to five feet high,
with slender, widespreading branches and rather sparsely scattered flowers.
If you would find its flowers open, you must seek it in the afternoon. At a
little distance, it appears as though the truant summer wind had lodged a
delicate white feather here and there upon the branches. In themselves,
these blossoms are not ill-favored, with their slender, recurved petals;
but to us the root is the most interesting part of the plant. This the
early Spanish-Californians used extensively in lieu of soap, and esteemed
greatly as a hair tonic, and it was known by them as "amole." Even now it
is much used among their descendants, and we know of one aged señora over
ninety who refuses to use anything else for washing. Her grandsons keep her
supplied with the bulbs, which they dig by the sackful from the neighboring
hill-slopes and mesas. She takes her linen down to the brookside, and
there, in primitive fashion, upon her knees she scours and rinses it till
it is as white as the driven snow.
The Indians of the Sierra foothills have a curious use for the bulb. After
the June freshets have subsided, many fish are usually left in small pools
in the streams. The squaws go to these pools with an abundance of
soap-root, and kneeling upon the banks, rub up a great suds with it. The
fish soon rise to the surface stupefied, and are easily taken.
[Illustration SOAP-PLANT--_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_.]
We are told that in the early days of the gold excitement, when commodities
were scarce and brought fabulous prices, the fibrous outer coats of the
bulb were used for stuffing mattresses.
The inner portion of the bulb, when reduced to a paste, is said to be an
excellent remedy for oak-poisoning, applied as a salve.
This is not the only plant popularly known as soap-plant among us. Several
others share the title, among them the goose-foot, the yucca, and the
California lilac. There are several other species of _Chlorogalum_.
MOUNTAIN BIRCH. WHITE TEA-TREE. SOAP-BUSH.
_Ceanothus integerrimus_, Hook. and Arn. Buckthorn Family.
Shrubs or small trees; five to twelve feet high; with
cylindrical, usually warty, branches. _Leaves._--Alternate; on
slender petioles two to six lines long; ovate to ovate-oblong;
one to three inches long; entire or rarely slightly
glandular-serrulate; thin. _Flowers._--White; sometimes blue;
in a thyrse three to seven inches long, one to four thick.
_Fruit._--Not crested. (See _Ceanothus_.) _Hab._--Mountains
from Los Angeles to the Columbia River.
When in flower, this is one of the most attractive of all our _Ceanothi_.
It often covers great mountain-sides with its white bloom as with drifted
snow. The trip to the Yosemite is often diversified by this beautiful
spectacle, which comes as an exhilarating surprise.
Among the mountaineers this shrub is highly valued as forage for their
cattle, which they turn upon it after the lowland pastures have dried up.
The young twigs and leaves have the spicy fragrance of the black birch of
the Eastern States. The foliage is deciduous, and of rather a pale though
bright green. The bark of the root of this shrub is becoming celebrated as
a remedy for various disorders, such as malaria, catarrh, and liver
trouble.
COMMON WHITE LUPINE.
_Lupinus densiflorus_, Benth. Pea Family.
_Stems._--Stout; simple below; parted in the middle into
numerous widespreading branches; two feet high; succulent;
sparsely villous. _Flowers._--In long-peduncled racemes; six to
ten inches long; with usually five or six dense whorls. Bracts
bristle-like, from a broad base. _Calyx._--Upper lip scarious;
deeply cleft; lower long, toothed. _Corolla._--White or
rose-color; seven lines or so long; the standard dark dotted.
_Pod._--Two-seeded. _Hab._--Widespread; Sacramento Valley
southward.
In the days when we went fishing in the brook with a pin for minnows, a
company of these pretty white lupines in a field represented to our
childish fancy so many graceful dames in flounced skirts dancing in a
sylvan ballroom.
MEADOW-SWEET.
_Spiraea discolor_, Pursh. Rose Family.
Shrubs two to six feet high. _Leaves._--Alternate;
short-petioled; an inch or two long; oval or ovate; crenately
lobed above; the lobes often toothed; silky pubescent beneath.
_Flowers._--White; two lines across; in feathery panicles
several inches long. _Calyx._--Five-parted; petaloid.
_Petals._--Five; equaling the sepals. _Stamens._--About twenty.
_Pistils._--Five; distinct; one-celled. _Hab._--Coast Ranges,
mostly from Monterey County northward.
Not until midsummer is upon us does the common meadow-sweet make itself
noticeable by its large feathery clusters of minute white flowers, which
have a pleasant odor, reminiscent of slippery-elm.
We have two species of _Spiraea_ with pink flowers--_S. Douglasii_, Hook.,
the Californian hardhack, having its blossoms in long clusters, (found in
Northern California,) and _S. betulifolia_, Pall., having flat-topped
flower-clusters, (found in the Sierras).
Another shrub closely resembling the _Spiraeas_ is _Neillia opulifolia_,
Benth. and Hook., the wild bridal-wreath, or ninebark. Indeed, this has
been classed by some authorities among the _Spiraeas_. It may be easily
recognized by its hemispherical clusters of white flowers. These clusters
are an inch or two across. Though the shrub is quite showy when in bloom,
it is almost equally attractive when its carpels are beginning to redden.
CALIFORNIAN AZALEA.
_Rhododendron occidentale_, Gray. Heath Family.
Shrubs two to twelve feet high. _Leaves._--Clustered at the
ends of the branches; obovate to lanceolate; two to four inches
long; herbaceous. _Flower-clusters._--Large, from a special
terminal bud. _Calyx._--Deeply five-cleft. _Corolla._--With
funnel-form tube, and five-cleft border; white; the upper lobe
blotched with corn-color; sometimes tinged with pink;
glandular-viscid without. _Stamens._--Five. Anthers two-celled,
opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. _Capsule._--Very
woody. _Hab._--Stream-banks throughout the State.
One of the most deservedly admired of all our shrubs is the lovely
Californian azalea. In June and July, the borders of our mountain streams
are covered for miles with the bushes, whose rich green foliage is often
almost obscured from view by the magnificent clusters of white and yellow,
or sometimes pinkish, flowers. Its delicious, spicy perfume is always
subtly suggestive of charming days spent with rod and line along cool
streams, or of those all too brief outings spent far from the haunts of
men, in some sequestered mountain-cabin among redwood groves or by rushing
waters.
In Oregon it is commonly known as "honeysuckle," and there in the autumn
its life ebbs away in a flood of glory, showering the forest floor with
flecks of scarlet and crimson. Its root is said to contain a strong
narcotic poison, and the leaves are also reputed to be poisonous if eaten,
but they are not at all harmful to the touch.
[Illustration CALIFORNIAN AZALEA--_Rhododendron occidentale_.]
AMERICAN BARRENWORT.
_Vancouveria parviflora_, Greene. Barberry Family.
_Stems._--One or two feet high. _Leaves._--All radical; twice
to thrice ternately compound. _Leaflets._--One to two inches
broad; rich shining green; persisting; undulate and
membrane-margined. _Flowers._--Twenty-five to fifty, in loose
panicles; small; with six to nine sepal-like bracts. Parts in
sixes all in front of one another. _Sepals._--Petaloid; two
lines long. _Petals._--White to lavender. _Stamens._--Erect;
closely appressed to the pistil. _Ovary._--One-celled. Style
stoutish. _Hab._--Coast Ranges of Central California.
There is no more exquisite plant in our coast woods than the American
barrenwort. Its delicate threadlike stems, which are yet strong and wiry,
hold up its spreading evergreen leaves, every leaflet in its own place.
There is a likeness in these leaves to the fronds of our Californian
maidenhair, and one could easily imagine the maidenhair amplified,
strengthened, and polished into this form. The leaflets are also somewhat
ivy-like in form.
In June its delicate, airy panicles of small white blossoms appear. These
are especially interesting as belonging to the Barberry family, where all
the floral organs stand in front of one another, and the anthers open by
cunningly contrived little uplifting valves. These plants are said to grow
upon bushy hillsides, in masses sometimes several feet across. But I have
never seen it with other than an exclusive and rather solitary habit,
growing in shaded forests. We have one or two other species.
SERVICE-BERRY. JUNE-BERRY.
_Amelanchier alnifolia_, Nutt. Rose Family.
Deciduous shrubs, three to eight feet high.
_Leaves._--Alternate; petioled; from rounded to oblong-ovate;
serrate usually only toward the apex; six to eighteen lines
long. _Flowers._--White, in short racemes.
_Calyx-tube._--Campanulate; limb five-parted. _Petals._--Five;
oblong; six lines or so long. _Stamens._--Twenty; short.
_Ovary._--Three- to five-celled. Styles three to five.
_Fruit._--Small; berry-like; dark purple. _Hab._--Throughout
the State and northward; also eastward to the Western States.
[Illustration AMERICANBARRENWORT--_Vancouveria parviflora_.]