of the species were supposed to flower upon the anniversary of this saint.
Perhaps there are no other plants around which tradition has thrown such a
glamour. Mr. Dyer says, in his interesting book, "The Folk-Lore of Plants,"
that the St. John's-wort was supposed to be an excellent amulet against
lightning, and that it had the magic property of revealing the presence of
witches; whence in Germany it was extensively worn on St. John's Eve, when
the air was supposed to be peopled with witches and evil spirits, who
wandered abroad upon no friendly errands. In Denmark it is resorted to by
anxious lovers who wish to divine their future.
GOLDEN DICENTRA.
_Dicentra chrysantha_, Hook. and Arn. Bleeding-heart Family.
_Stems._--Glaucous and smooth; two to five feet high.
_Leaves._--The larger ones a foot long or more; finely
dissected into small linear lobes. _Flowers._--Erect; yellow;
six to nine lines long; in a loose terminal panicle a foot or
two long. _Sepals._--Two; small; caducous.
_Corolla._--Flattened and cordate; of two pairs of petals; the
outer larger, saccate at base, and with spreading tips; the
inner much narrower, spoon-shaped, their tips cohering and
inclosing the anthers and stigma. _Stamens._--Six.
_Ovary._--One-celled. Style slender. Stigma two-lobed.
_Hab._--Dry hills, Lake County to San Diego.
[Illustration ST. JOHN'S-WORT--_Hypericum concinnum_.]
The arrangement of the essential organs in the genus _Dicentra_ is very
curious and interesting. The six stamens are borne in two companies of
three each, which stand in front of the outer petals, and have their
filaments more or less united at the base. The central stamen in each group
has a two-celled anther, while its neighbor on either hand has but a
one-celled anther. The stigma-lobes often bend downward prettily, like the
flukes of a little anchor.
To this genus belongs the beautiful Oriental bleeding-heart of the garden;
and we have two or three interesting native species.
_D. chrysantha_ is usually a somewhat coarse plant, lacking the grace of
_D. formosa_, the Californian bleeding-heart. The pale leaves, which are
minutely and delicately dissected, are suggestive of the fronds of certain
Japanese ferns. But the flower-stalks are often stiff and sparsely
flowered, and the blossoms, which are erect, not pendulous, have an
over-powering narcotic odor, much like that of the poppy. These plants may
be found upon dry hillsides or in sandy washes in early summer, where the
brilliant yellow blossoms are quite conspicuous. One view of these flowers
is not unlike the conventionalized tulip.
This species is said to thrive well in cultivation and make a very
effective plant when grown in rich garden soil.
CALIFORNIAN DANDELION.
_Troximon grandiflorum_, Gray. Composite Family.
Herbs with woody tap-root and milky juice. _Leaves._--All
radical; lanceolate or oblanceolate; mostly laciniately
pinnatifid. _Scapes._--One to two and one half feet high.
_Heads._--Solitary; two inches or so across; of strap-shaped
yellow rays only. _Involucre._--Of several series of imbricated
scales, the outer foliaceous and loose. _Receptacle._--Mostly
naked; pitted. _Akenes._--Two lines long; tapering into a
filiform beak six or eight lines long, surmounted by a tuft of
silk. _Hab._--Washington to Southern California near the Coast.
The common dandelion of the East has found its way into our lawns, but it
never adapts itself as a wild plant to the vicissitudes of our dry summer
climate. Nature has given us a dandelion of our own, of a different genus,
which is quite as beautiful, though its flowers are not so vivid a gold.
They are larger than those of the Eastern plant, and are borne upon taller
stems. In early summer the large, ethereal globes of the ripened seed are
conspicuous objects, hovering over our straw-tinted fields.
Mr. Burroughs writes of the dandelion:--"After its first blooming, comes
its second and finer and more spiritual inflorescence, when its stalk,
dropping its more earthly and carnal flower, shoots upward and is presently
crowned by a globe of the most delicate and aerial texture. It is like the
poet's dream, which succeeds his rank and golden youth. This globe is a
fleet of a hundred fairy balloons, each one of which bears a seed which it
is destined to drop far from the parent source."
If gathered just before they open and allowed to expand in the house, these
down-globes will remain perfect for a long time and make an exquisite
adornment for some delicate vase.
We have several other species of _Troximon_, but this is our finest.
* * * * *
_Hosackia bicolor_, Dougl. Pea Family.
Smooth throughout; erect; two feet high. _Leaves._--With rather
large, scarious, triangular stipules; pinnate.
_Leaflets._--Five to nine; obovate or oblong; six to twelve
lines long. _Peduncles._--Three- to seven-flowered; naked or
with a small scarious, one- to three-leaved bract.
_Flowers._--Seven lines long. _Calyx-teeth._--Triangular; half
as long as the tube. _Standard._--Yellow; wings and keel white.
_Stamens._--Nine united; one free. _Pod._--Linear; nearly two
inches long; acute. _Hab._--Middle California to the State of
Washington.
The yellow and white blossoms of this pretty _Hosackia_ are quite showy,
and are usually found upon low ground near the seaboard.
Another similar species, also having a yellow standard and white wings and
keel, is _H. Torreyi_, Gray. This is more or less silky pubescent; its
wings are not spreading, its leaflets are narrower, and the bract of the
umbel is sessile. This is found along shaded stream-banks both in the
higher Coast Ranges and in the Sierras, and blooms in summer.
_H. gracilis_, Benth., with the standard yellow and the widespreading wings
and shorter keel of rose-color, occurs in moist meadows along the coast
from Monterey to the Columbia. It blooms by the middle of April.
_H. crassifolia_, Benth., a very large species, two or three feet high,
with greenish-yellow or purplish flowers, is abundant in the Yosemite
Valley about the borders of meadows. It is also common in the foothill
region.
SKUNK-CABBAGE.
_Lysichiton Camtschatcensis_, Schott. Arum Family.
_Rootstock._--Thick; horizontal. _Leaves._--All radical;
oblong-lanceolate; acute; one to three feet or more long; three
to ten inches broad; narrowed to a short petiole or sessile.
_Flowers._--Small, crowded on a spadix, at the summit of a
stout peduncle becoming six to twelve inches long.
_Spadix._--With an erect, spoon-shaped spathe, one and one-half
to two feet long; bright yellow. _Perianth._--Four-lobed.
_Stamens._--Four. Filaments short, flat. _Ovary._--Conical;
two-celled. Stigma depressed. _Fruit._--Fleshy, coalescent and
sunk in the rachis. _Hab._--Peat bogs; from Mendocino County
northward to Alaska; also, perhaps, in the Rocky Mountains.
In our northwestern counties, before the frost is entirely out of the
ground, the leaves of the skunk-cabbage may be seen pushing their way up
through the standing water of marshy localities. They soon attain a great
size, and resemble the leaves of the banana-tree. They are of a rich
velvet-green, slightly mottled, and are said to rival some of the tropical
productions of our greenhouses.
There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the disagreeableness of
these leaves. I suspect the odor lies mostly in the slimy, soapy sap, and
is not very noticeable if they are not bruised or cut.
When the plants are in bloom, in May and June, they are very handsome, the
large spoon-shaped, golden spathes being conspicuous at some distance. As
this spathe withers away, the flower-stalk continues to grow, and its
little greenish-yellow blossoms become brown.
[Illustration _Hosackia gracilis._]
The peppery root is highly esteemed for medicinal purposes, and is
gathered and made into a salve, which is considered a specific for
ringworm, white swelling, inflammatory rheumatism, etc. The root is said to
enter largely into the composition of a patent medicine called "Skookum."
Mr. Johnson, of the U.S. Forestry Department in Oregon, tells me that the
bears are very fond of this root, and dig industriously for it, often
making a hole large enough to bury themselves, and he mentions having seen
whole fields plowed up by them in their search for it.
This plant belongs to the same family as the skunk-cabbage of the East and
the calla-lily. It has been found in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
BLAZING-STAR.
_Mentzelia laevicaulis_, Torr. and Gray. Loasa or Blazing-star Family.
_Stems._--Stout; two or three feet high; white.
_Leaves._--Alternate; sessile; lanceolate; sinuate-toothed; two
to eight inches long. _Flowers._--Sessile, on short branches;
light yellow or cream-color; three or four inches across.
_Calyx-tube._--Cylindrical; naked; limb five-cleft nearly to
the base. _Petals._--About ten; oblanceolate; acute.
_Stamens._--Numerous on the calyx; almost equaling the petals.
_Ovary._--One-celled; truncate at summit. Style three-cleft.
_Capsule._--Fifteen lines long. _Hab._--San Diego to the
Columbia River, and eastward to Wyoming.
After most other flowers have departed, the magnificent blossoms of the
_Mentzelia_ come forth. It seems as though they had waited for the
firmament to be clear of other stars before bursting upon the sight. Their
enormous blossoms are crowned by the soft radiance of the long stamens,
"like the lashes of light that trim the stars."
These plants are furnished with barbed hairs, which cause them to cling to
whatever they come in contact with. They are of tall and spreading habit,
and are often found in the dry beds of streams, where their flowers open in
the daytime--unlike those of _M. Lindleyi_, which open at night.
[Illustration BLAZING-STAR--_Mentzelia Lindleyi_.]
_M. Lindleyi_, Torr. and Gray, is one of the most brilliantly radiant of
all our flowers. Its charming blossoms, which open on the edge of evening,
are of a delicate silken texture, and of the richest gold. When the
flowers first open, the stamens lie flat upon the petals; but they
gradually rise up, forming a large tuft in the center of the flower. The
faded sepals crown the long seed-vessel, like the flame of the conventional
torch seen in old pictures. This grows in the Monte Diablo Range; and Niles
and Alum Rock are convenient places to find it. It is cultivated in Eastern
gardens under the name of _Bartonia aurea_.
STONECROP.
_Sedum spathulifolium_, Hook. Stonecrop or Orpine Family.
_Leaves._--Alternate; fleshy; spatulate; six to ten lines long;
sessile; crowded in rosettes at the ends of the decumbent
branches. _Scapes._--Four to six inches high. _Flowers._--In
compound, one-sided, loose cymes; their parts four or five;
pale-yellow. _Sepals._--United at base. _Petals._--Lanceolate;
three lines long. _Stamens._--Twice the number of the petals.
_Pistils._--Equaling the number of the petals; attenuate into
the short styles. _Ovaries._--One-celled. _Hab._--Middle
California to Vancouver Island.
Blooming somewhat earlier than the "hen-and-chickens," but in similar
situations, the stonecrop often clothes rock-masses with beautiful color.
The common name, "orpine," was given on account of the yellow, or orpine,
flowers; and the name "stonecrop," from its always growing in stony places.
PRICKLY-PEAR. TUNA.
_Opuntia Engelmanni_, Salm. Cactus Family.
Erect, bushy, spreading shrubs without leaves, with flattened
stems produced in successive, compressed oval Joints.
_Joints._--Six to twelve inches long; studded sparsely with
bundles of stout spines. _Flowers._--Solitary; sessile; yellow
or red; about three inches across. _Sepals_, petals, and
stamens numerous in many series, their cohering bases coating
the one-celled ovary and forming a cup above it.
_Petals._--Spreading. Style one, with several stigmas.
_Fruit._--Purple; oval; pulpy; juicy; two inches long.
_Hab._--Southern California, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc.
The genus _Opuntia_ is divided into two sections, consisting respectively
of flat-stemmed and cylindrical-stemmed plants, the former commonly known
as "prickly-pear," or "tuna," the latter as _Cholla cactus_.
Of the former, _O. Engelmanni_ is our commonest wild species. It is the one
seen from the car-windows growing in great patches upon the Mojave Desert,
and it is abundant upon dry hills all through the south. There are two
varieties of it--_var. occidentalis_, Engelm., the form prevalent in the
interior, and _var. littoralis_, Engelm., found upon the sea-coast from
Santa Barbara to San Diego.
These plants have a very leathery, impermeable skin, from which evaporation
takes place but slowly, which enables them to inhabit arid regions. The
fruit is sweet and edible, and the Indians, who are especially fond of it,
dry large quantities for winter use. They make of the fresh fruit a sauce,
by long-continued boiling, which they regard as especially nutritious and
stimulating after it is slightly fermented. They also roast the leaves in
hot ashes and eat the slimy, sweet substance which is left after the outer
skin and thorns have been removed.
Cattle-men of the southern plains plant the different species as hedges
about their corrals, and feed the succulent joints to their stock after
burning off the spines.
Several Mexican species were planted in the early days about the Missions
by the Padres, as defensive hedges, and remnants of these redoubtable
fortifications, ten to fifteen feet high, are still to be seen stretching
for miles through our southern fields.
In Mexico the _Opuntia tuna_ is largely cultivated for the rearing of
cochineal insects.
VENEGASIA.
_Venegasia carpesioides_, DC. Composite Family.
Several feet high; leafy to the top. _Leaves._--Alternate;
slenderly petioled; cordate or ovate-deltoid; crenate; two to
four inches long; thin. _Flower-heads._--Large; two-inches
across, including the rays; yellow; slender-peduncled; composed
of ray- and disk-flowers. _Rays._--Over an inch long; six lines
wide; two- or three-toothed; fertile; about fifteen.
_Involucre._--Broad; of many roundish-green scales; becoming
scarious inward. _Hab._--Santa Barbara and southward.
This plant, with its ample thin leaves and large yellow flowers, would
arrest the attention anywhere. It often grows under the shade of trees in
cool cañons, where its blossoms brighten the twilight gloom. It is an
admirable plant, and has but one drawback--its rather unpleasant odor. It
is the only species of the genus which was named in honor of an early
Jesuit missionary, Michael Venegas. It is especially abundant and beautiful
about Santa Barbara.
FALSE PIMPERNEL.
_Hypericum anagalloides_, Cham. and Schlecht. St. John's-wort Family.
_Stems._--Numerous; weak; low; spreading; rooting at the
joints. _Leaves._--Two to six lines long; oblong to round;
clasping. _Flowers._--Three or four lines across;
salmon-colored. _Stamens._--Fifteen to twenty.
_Capsule._--One-celled. _Hab._--Lower California to British
Columbia, eastward into Montana.
In moist places the prostrate stems of this little plant often make dense
mats.
Its specific name indicates its resemblance to the Anagallis, or pimpernel.
In fact, one might easily imagine it a pimpernel with salmon-colored
flowers.
CANCER-ROOT. NAKED BROOM-RAPE.
_Aphyllon fasciculatum_, Gray. Broom-rape Family.
Leafless parasitic plants. _Stems._--Scaly; thickened and
knotty below, and bearing on their summits few or many
clustered, one-flowered peduncles of about the same length.
_Flowers._--Yellowish; sometimes purplish or reddish outside.
_Calyx._--Slenderly five-toothed. _Corolla._--Tubular; over an
inch long, with five spreading lobes; somewhat bilabiate.
_Stamens._--Four; in pairs; included. _Ovary._--One-celled.
Style slender. Stigma two-lobed. _Hab._--Throughout California,
eastward to Lake Superior.
There are about half a dozen species of cancer-root known upon our Coast,
all strange-looking, leafless plants, of very doubtful moral character--for
I fear it must be confessed they are thieves. Stealthily sending their
roots down and imbedding them in the roots of their victims, they draw from
them the nourishment needed for their sustenance. But they have been
overtaken by the proper retributive punishment--for having no longer any
need of organs for the elaboration of nourishment, they are denied green
leaves, the most beautiful adornment of many plants; and even the flowers
of some of them seem to us to have a sickly, unwholesome hue. However, it
must be acknowledged that these plants are quite interesting, despite their
evil ways.
[Illustration CANCER-ROOT--_Aphyllon fasciculatum_.]
_A. fasciculatum_ usually blooms in early summer, on dry, rocky hills, and
is parasitic upon the roots of sagebrush, wild buckwheat, etc.
YELLOW MARIPOSA TULIP.
_Calochortus luteus_, Dougl. Lily Family.
_Stems._--Four to twelve inches high; bearing a single bulblet
inclosed in the stem-sheath. _Leaves._--Very narrow; one to
three lines wide. _Flowers._--Erect; cup-shaped; yellow; small;
not oculated, but the petals striated with brown lines,
especially on the middle third. _Gland._--Transversely oblong
to lunate; densely hairy with orange-colored ascending hairs,
with scattered spreading hairs about it. _Capsule._--Broad at
the base; tapering upward. _Hab._--Clay soil; Coast Ranges from
Mendocino County to San Diego.
The typical _C. luteus_, as described above, is the least beautiful of all
the Mariposa tulips, being lower of stature and smaller of flower than most
of the others; but among its varieties may be found some of the most
charming flowers of the genus, the true butterfly-tulips of the early
Spanish, often oculated and marked in a wonderful manner. In color and
marking they often run closely into forms of _C. venustus_, the only
constant characters by which to distinguish them being found in the shape
of the gland and the capsule and the character of the soil in which they
grow.
There are two well-marked varieties--_citrinus_ and _oculatus_--besides
numerous other forms, where the species seems to have run riot in color and
marking. The _var. citrinus_ is a strong, vigorous-growing plant, with
flowers of a deep lemon-yellow, with a large, distinct, very dark maroon
eye on each petal. It is exceedingly beautiful.
SILVER-WEED. CINQUEFOIL.
_Potentilla Anserina_, L. Rose Family.
_Stems._--Prostrate. _Leaves._--All radical; a foot or so long;
pinnate, with seven to twenty-one leaflets with smaller ones
interposed. _Leaflets._--Sessile; oblong; toothed; shining
green; silvery beneath. _Flowers._--Bright yellow;
long-peduncled; solitary; an inch across. _Sepals._--Five; with
five bractlets between. _Petals._--Five. _Stamens._--Twenty to
twenty-five. _Pistils._--Numerous; on a hairy receptacle.
_Hab._--Throughout North America.
The bright golden blossoms of the silver-weed are common in moist places,
haunting stream-banks, lingering about stagnant ponds, or even pushing
their way up amid the grasses of our salt marshes. The white under-surfaces
of the leaves are responsible for one of the common names of this plant.
_P. glandulosa_, Lindl., is found upon dry hillsides. It is one or two feet
high, and is an ill-smelling, somewhat sticky plant, with glandular hairs.
The stems are leafy, and the small flowers, like pale-yellow
strawberry-blossoms, are produced in loose clusters. The corolla scarcely
exceeds the calyx. The leaves, which have from five to nine leaflets, have
not the silvery under-surface of those of _P. Anserina_.
COMMON EVENING PRIMROSE.
_OEnothera biennis_, L. Evening-Primrose Family.
_Stems._--Stout; usually simple; one to five feet high; more or
less hairy. _Leaves._--Mostly sessile; lanceolate to oblong;
two to six inches long; denticulate. _Flowers._--Golden yellow;
in a leafy spike; erect in the bud. _Calyx-tube._--Twelve to
thirty lines long. _Petals._--Six to nine lines long.
_Stigma-lobes._--Linear. _Capsule._--An inch or less long. (See
_OEnothera_.) _Hab._--Throughout the United States.
The common evening primrose is a very widespread plant in the United
States, and it has long been in cultivation in Europe. Its flowers open
suddenly at night, and, according to tradition, with a popping noise.
Referring to this, the poet Keats speaks of--
"A turf of evening primroses,
O'er which the mind may hover till it dozes;
O'er which it well might take a pleasant sleep,
But that 'tis ever startled by the leap
Of buds into ripe flowers."
These blossoms are said to be luminous at night, shining by the sunlight
they have stored during the daytime.
The young roots, which are edible, are excellent, either pickled or boiled,
having a nutty flavor. In Germany and France these are used, either stewed
or raw, in salads, like celery; and the young mucilaginous twigs are also
used in the same way. A tincture of the whole plant is a valued remedy in
medicine for many disorders. Our Californian plants are mostly of the _var.
hirsutissima_, Gray, having very large flowers and a hairy capsule.
GUM-PLANT. RESIN-WEED. AUGUST-FLOWER.
_Grindelia cuneifolia_, Nutt. Composite Family.
Bushy; two to four feet high; smooth.
_Leaves._--Cuneate-spatulate to linear-oblong; leathery; three
or four inches long. _Flower-heads._--Solitary; terminating the
branches; yellow; composed of disk- and ray-flowers.
_Rays._--One inch long. _Involucre._--Hemispherical; of
numerous scales, with spreading tips. _Buds_.--Covered with a
milky gum. _Syn._--_Grindelia robusta, var. angustifolia_,
Gray. _Hab._--From Santa Barbara northward.
The _Grindelias_ are especially characteristic of the region west of the
Mississippi River, and are all known as "gum-plant," or "resin-weed," owing
to the balsamic exudation which is found mostly upon the flower-heads. We
have several species, all of which are rather difficult of determination.
Before the occupation of California by the whites, the value of these
plants was known to the Indians, who used them in pulmonary troubles, and
as a wash in cases of oak-poisoning or other skin-diseases. They are now
made into a drug by our own people, who use them in the same manner as the
aborigines.
By the middle of August our salt marshes are gay with the bright yellow
flowers.
Every year men are sent out to gather the plant. Only about five or six
inches of the tops of the branches are cut, as the resin is found mostly
there in the form of a white gum. Tons of these shoots are shipped East
annually, to be returned to us later in the form of the medicine called
"grindelia."
[Illustration GUM-PLANT--_Grindelia cuneifolia_.]
_Grindelia hirsutula_, Hook. and Arn., is a pretty species, flowering in
early summer upon hill-slopes. This may be known by its reddish stems and
more slender and fewer ray-flowers.
SULPHUR-FLOWER.
_Eriogonum umbellatum_, Torr. Buckwheat Family.
_Leaves._--All radical; obovate to oblong-spatulate; two inches
or less long; mostly smooth above; sometimes woolly below.
_Scapes._--Three to twelve inches high.
_Flowers._--Sulphur-yellow; two or three lines long; many
contained in each little top-shaped involucre, on threadlike
stems. _Involucres._--Two lines or so long; deeply cleft, the
lobes becoming reflexed. _Perianth._--Six-parted.
_Stamens._--Nine. _Ovary._--Triangular; one-celled.
_Styles._--Three. Stigmas capitate. _Hab._--Mountains of Middle
and Northern California, and eastward.
Large companies of the sulphur-flower may be seen in the Sierras in July
and August, where it covers open, dry, rocky slopes, making brilliant
masses of color.
Growing with this is often found another species--_E. ursinum_, Wats.--with
flowers of a beautiful translucent cream-color, often tinged with pink.
WILD BOUVARDIA.
_Gilia grandiflora_, Gray. Phlox or Polemonium Family.