found in the mountains of Sonoma and Napa Counties. This has from one to
four flowers, which are an inch long, with simple campanulate outline,
without recurving tips.
[Illustration NORTHERN SCARLET LARKSPUR--_Delphinium nudicaule_.]
COLUMBINE.
_Aquilegia truncata_, Fisch. and Mey. Buttercup or Crowfoot
Family.
_Stems._--One to three feet high; very slender.
_Leaves._--Mostly radical; divided into thin, distant leaflets.
_Flowers._--Scarlet; tinged with yellow; eighteen to
twenty-four lines across. Parts in fives. _Sepals._--Petaloid;
rotately spreading. _Petals._--Tubular; produced into long
spurs or horns. _Stamens._--Numerous on the receptacle; much
exserted. _Pistils._--Five; simple. _Hab._--Throughout
California.
Sprung in a cleft of the wayside steep,
And saucily nodding, flushing deep,
With her airy tropic bells aglow,--
Bold and careless, yet wondrous light,
And swung into poise on the stony height,
Like a challenge flung to the world below!
Skirting the rocks at the forest edge
With a running flame from ledge to ledge,
Or swaying deeper in shadowy glooms,
A smoldering fire in her dusky blooms;
Bronzed and molded by wind and sun,
Maddening, gladdening every one
With a gypsy beauty full and fine,--
A health to the crimson columbine!
--ELAINE GOODALE
To enjoy the exquisite airy beauty of this lovely flower, we must seek it
in its own haunts--for there is a touch of wildness in its nature that will
not be subdued; nor will it submit to being handled or ruthlessly
transported from its own sylvan retreat.
Fringing the stream, peering over the bank, as if to see its own loveliness
reflected there, or hiding in the greenest recesses of the woodland, it is
always a welcome blossom, and the eye brightens and the pulse quickens upon
beholding it.
This species is at home throughout our borders; but there is another
form which is said to be found occasionally in our very high
mountains--_A. coerulea_, James. This is plentiful in the Rocky
Mountains, and is the State flower of Colorado. Its blossoms, which are
blue or white, are large and magnificent, with slender spurs an inch and
a half or two inches long.
[Illustration COLUMBINE--_Aquilegia truncata_.]
CLIMBING PENTSTEMON. SCARLET HONEYSUCKLE.
_Pentstemon cordifolius_, Benth. Figwort Family.
Woody at base, with long, slender branches, which climb over
other shrubs. _Leaves._--Cordate or ovate; an inch or less
long. _Calyx._--Campanulate; five-parted. _Corolla._--Bright
scarlet; eighteen lines long. Sterile stamen bearded down one
side. (See _Pentstemon_.) _Hab._--From Santa Barbara to San
Diego.
In spring we notice in the borders of southern woodlands and along the
roadsides certain long, wandlike branches with beautiful heart-shaped
leaves, which are suggestive of those of the garden Fuchsia. Our curiosity
is naturally aroused and we wonder what blossom is destined to grace this
elegant foliage. Early summer solves the mystery by hanging the tips of
these wands with brilliant scarlet blossoms, in every way satisfying the
earlier promise.
These flowers often look down at us in a sort of mocking, Mephistophelian
manner, as they hang amid the rich greens of other shrubs and trees. Seen
with a glass, they are quite glandular. The fifth stamen looks like a very
cunning little golden hearth-brush.
HUMMING-BIRD'S SAGE.
_Audibertia grandiflora_, Benth. Mint Family.
Coarse plants, with woolly stems; one to three feet high.
_Leaves._--Opposite; wrinkly; white-woolly beneath; crenate;
the lower three to eight inches long; hastate-lanceolate; on
margined petioles; upper sessile; pointed.
_Inflorescence._--Over a foot long, with many large, widely
separated whorls of crimson flowers. _Corollas._--Eighteen
lines long. Stamens and style much exserted.
_Flower-bracts._--Ovate; sharp-pointed; often crimson-tinged.
(Otherwise as _A. stachyoides._) _Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from
San Mateo southward.
[Illustration CLIMBING PENTSTEMOM--_Pentstemon cordifolius_.]
This, the largest-flowered of all our _Audibertias_, becomes especially
conspicuous by April and May in southern woodlands, where its large, dark
flower-clusters may be seen in little companies amid the shadows. The
leaves and bracts are quite viscid, and have a rather rank, unpleasant
odor; but the flowers are not without a certain comeliness. The long,
crimson trumpets are arranged in whorls about the stems, projecting from
many densely crowded bracts. Tier after tier of these interrupted whorls,
sometimes as many as nine, mount the stems. The bracts and stems are
usually of a rich bronze, which harmonizes finely with the color of the
flowers. The joint in the filament is quite conspicuous in this species.
"Humming-birds that dart in the sun like green and golden arrows"
seem to be the sole beneficiaries of the abundant nectar in these deep
tubes.
CALIFORNIAN SWEET-SCENTED SHRUB.
WESTERN SPICE-BUSH.
_Calycanthus occidentalis_, Hook. and Arn. Sweet Shrub Family.
_Shrubs._--Six to twelve feet high. _Leaves._--Ovate to
oblong-lanceolate; three to six inches long; dark green;
roughish. _Flowers._--Wine-colored (sometimes white); solitary;
two inches or so across. _Sepals_, petals, and stamens
indefinite, passing into each other; all coalescent below into
the cuplike calyx-tube, on whose inner surface are borne the
numerous carpels. _Petals._--Linear-spatulate, usually
tawny-tipped. Carpels becoming akenes. _Hab._--From the lower
Sacramento River northward.
This is one of our most beautiful shrubs. Upon the banks of streams, or
often upon a shaded hillside where some little rill trickles out from a
hidden source, it spreads its branches and lifts its canopy of ample
leaves. There is a pleasant fragrance about the whole shrub, and the
leaves, when crushed, are agreeably bitter. From April to November the
charming flowers, like small wine-colored chrysanthemums, are produced; and
these are followed by the prettily veined, urn-shaped seed-vessels, which
remain upon the bushes until after the next season's flowers appear, by
which time they are almost black. It is from these cuplike seed-vessels
that the genus takes its name, which is derived from two Greek words,
meaning _flower_ and _cup._
[Illustration CALIFORNIAN SWEET-SCENTED SHRUB--_Calycanthus
occidentalis_.]
INDIAN PINK.
_Silene Californica_, Durand. Pink Family.
_Root._--Deep. _Stems._--Several; procumbent or sub-erect;
leafy. _Leaves._--Ovate-elliptic or lanceolate; eighteen lines
to four inches long. _Flowers._--Brilliant scarlet; over an
inch across. _Calyx._--Five-toothed. _Petals._--Five;
long-clawed; the blades variously cleft, and with two erect
toothlike appendages at the throat. _Stamens._--Ten; exserted
with the three filiform styles. _Ovary._--One-celled.
_Hab._--Widely distributed.
The Indian pink is one of the most beautiful of our flowers, and it appeals
to the aesthetic sense in a way few flowers do. Its brilliant scarlet
blossoms brighten the soft browns of our roadsides in early summer, and
gleam amid the green of thickets like bits of fire. Its corolla is
elegantly slashed, and it is altogether a much finer flower than the
southern form, _S. laciniata_. Its rather broad leaves are often quite
viscid to the touch, in which respect it shares in the character from which
the genus was named in allusion to Silenus, the companion of Bacchus, who
is described as covered with foam.
_S. laciniata_, Cav., is a similar species found from Central California
southward. It is usually a taller plant, with many stems and narrow leaves.
It is also quite viscid, and many small insects, mostly ants, are almost
always to be seen ensnared upon its stems. We are at a loss to account for
this until we remember what Sir John Lubbock says in this connection. He
suggests that ants are not very desirable visitors for promoting
cross-fertilization among plants, as their progress is slow, and they
cannot visit many plants far apart. On the other hand, winged insects, such
as bees, butterflies, and moths, making long excursions through the air,
are admirably adapted for bringing pollen from distant plants. Hence plants
spread their attractions for such insects, while they often contrive all
sorts of ingenious devices for keeping undesirable ones, like ants, away
from their flowers.
The Spanish-Californians call this plant "Yerba del Indio," and make it
into a tea which they esteem as a remedy for all sorts of aches and
pains, and use as a healing application to ulcers.
[Illustration INDIAN PINK--_Silene Californica_.]
Another species--_S. Hookeri_, Nutt.--is easily known by its large pink
flowers, often two and a half inches across, and delicately slashed. This
is found in our western counties, growing upon wooded hillsides, where its
charming flowers show to excellent advantage.
COAST LILY.
_Lilium maritimum_, Kell. Lily Family.
_Bulb_.--Conical; twelve to eighteen lines thick, with closely
appressed scales. _Stem._--One to three feet high; slender.
_Leaves._--Seldom, if at all, whorled; linear or narrowly
oblanceolate; obtuse; one to five inches long. _Flowers._--One
to five; deep blood-red; spotted with purple; long-pediceled;
horizontal. _Perianth-segments._--Six; lanceolate; eighteen
lines long; the upper third somewhat recurved. _Hab._--Near the
Coast, from San Mateo to Mendocino County.
The little Coast lily is found most abundantly in the black peat bogs of
Mendocino County, though it ranges southward to San Mateo County and
northward to Humboldt County.
Mr. Purdy says of it: "It is seldom seen farther than two miles from the
ocean. On the edges of the bogs the lily is often a dwarf, blossoming at
three or four inches. In the bogs it roots itself in the tufts, and becomes
a lovely plant five feet high with ten or fifteen fine blossoms."
The leaves are dark, glossy green and the blossoms are more cylindrical
than funnel-form, the three inner segments spreading more than the outer,
which remain almost erect. The little oval anthers, with cinnamon-colored
pollen, almost fill the narrow tube and conceal the fact that the segments
are yellow below and more decidedly spotted.
CHOLLA-CACTUS.
_Opuntia prolifera_, Engelm. Cactus Family.
Leafless, spiny, arborescent shrubs, three to ten feet high,
with elongated, cylindrical joints, covered with oblong
tubercles which bear from three to eight spines. Longest spines
twelve to eighteen lines long. _Stems._--Two to seven inches
thick. _Flowers._--Purplish-red; densely clustered at the ends
of the branches. _Sepals_, petals, and stamens, many.
_Ovary._--One-celled. Style one. Stigmas several. _Fruit._--Green;
obovate; concave on the top; having no spines, only bristles;
usually sterile; often producing other flowers. _Hab._--From
Ventura to San Diego and southward.
Upon dry hills, even as far north as Ventura, the cholla cactus is a
familiar feature of the landscape. In many places it forms extensive and
impassable thickets, which afford an asylum to many delicate and tender
plants that retire to it as a last refuge from sheep and cattle.
The young joints, which are clustered at the ends of the branches, are from
three to nine inches long. By means of their barbed spines, these adhere to
any passing object, and as they break off very readily, they are thus often
transported to a distance. As they root easily, this seems to afford a
means of propagation, in the absence of seed--for the fruit is usually
seedless.
The spines are quite variable in length, the longest being sometimes an
inch and a half. Each one is covered by a papery sheath, which slips off
easily.
Upon the ground about these shrubs may usually be found the skeletons of
old branches. These are hollow cylinders of woody basket-work, which are
quite symmetrical and pretty.
_O. serpentina_, Engelm., found at San Diego, and often growing with the
above, resembles it somewhat, but may be known by its much longer spines,
which are from three to nine inches long, and by its greenish-yellow
flowers. The plants are usually found near the seashore and
scattered--_i.e._ never forming thickets.
Upon the sea-coast at San Diego is found another plant similar to the
above--_Cereus Emoryi_, Engelm.--the "velvet cactus." Instead of being
covered with tubercles, these plants have from sixteen to twenty vertical
ribs, upon which are borne the bunches of slender spines. These spines are
from a quarter of an inch to one and three quarters inches long, and
without barbs. The flowers are greenish-yellow, and not particularly pretty
or attractive.
SCARLET BUGLER.
_Pentstemon centranthifolius_, Benth. Figwort Family.
Very glaucous and smooth. _Stem._--One to three feet high.
_Leaves._--Ovate-lanceolate; mostly sessile; the upper
cordate-clasping; thick. _Panicles._--Narrow; a foot or two
long. _Corolla._--Bright scarlet; an inch or more long; hardly
bilabiate. (See _Pentstemon_.) _Hab._--From Monterey to Los
Angeles.
The tall spires of the scarlet bugler are such familiar sights along
southern roadsides and sandy washes that people almost forget the
enthusiastic admiration their bright beauty first elicited. It is said that
acres of mountain lands are sometimes a solid mass of vermilion during the
blooming season of this lovely plant.
The panicle is often two feet long, with its string of scarlet horns. The
individual flowers bear quite a likeness to those of the honeysuckle,
common in Eastern gardens, and by those who encounter the plant for the
first time, it is usually spoken of as "honeysuckle." The blossoms are
sometimes yellow near San Bernardino.
_P. Bridgesii_, Gray, met more frequently in the Yosemite than elsewhere,
though it occurs in the Sierras from the Yosemite southward, is a very
similar plant to the above. But it differs in having its corolla quite
distinctly bilabiate, though of the same general tubular, funnel-form
shape.
LARGE VETCH.
_Vicia gigantea_, Hook. Pea Family.
Climbing. Stems.--Five to fifteen feet long.
_Leaves._--Alternate; pinnate; terminated by a tendril.
_Leaflets._--Ten to thirteen pairs; linear-oblong; obtuse;
mucronulate; one or two inches long. _Stipules._--An inch long;
semi-sagittate. _Racemes._--Dense; one-sided; five to
eighteen-flowered. _Flowers._--Dull red.
_Corolla._--Papilionaceous. Petals not spreading.
_Stamens._--Nine united; one free. _Style._--Hairy all around
under the stigma. _Pod._--An inch or so long. (See
_Leguminosae_.) _Hab._--From San Francisco Bay northward to
Sitka.
This vine is usually found in moist places. Its blossoms are never
attractive for they have a faded, worn-out look, even when they are fresh.
The pods are black when ripe, and the seeds are said to be edible.
[Illustration SCARLET BUGLER--_Pentstemon centranthifolius_.]
SCARLET GILIA.
_Gilia aggregata_, Spreng. Phlox or Polemonium Family.
_Stems._--One to three feet high. _Leaves._--Pinnately parted
into seven to thirteen linear, pointed divisions. Upper leaves
more simple. _Flowers._--In a loose panicle. _Calyx._--Deeply
five-cleft; glandular. _Corolla._--Scarlet, pink, or rarely
even white; with funnel-form tube, one inch long; and rotately
spreading five-lobed border. Lobes three to six lines long.
(See _Gilia_.) _Hab._--Throughout the Sierras.
The scarlet _Gilia_ is a familiar flower in the Sierras in late summer,
growing everywhere in dry places. It may be easily recognized by its rich,
glossy, flat, green leaves, pinnately divided into linear divisions, its
tall, loosely branching habit, and its bright, delicate scarlet flowers,
standing out horizontally from the stem. The corolla-lobes are often
flesh-pink or yellowish within, splashed or streaked with scarlet. The
whole plant is quite viscid.
SCARLET MONKEY-FLOWER.
_Mimulus cardinalis_, Dougl. Figwort Family.
Stout; viscid; hairy. _Stems._--One to five feet high.
_Leaves._--Sessile; ovate to ovate-lanceolate; ragged-margined;
several-nerved; two or three inches long. _Peduncles._--Three
inches long. _Corolla._--Scarlet; two inches or more long.
Upper lip erect; its two lobes turned back. Lower lip
three-lobed; reflexed. _Stamens._--Exserted. (See _Mimulus_.)
_Hab._--Throughout Oregon and California along watercourses.
One day in June, when riding upon the shores of Bolinas Bay, I came upon a
spot where a cañon stream flowed out upon a little flat at tide-level,
making a small fresh-water marsh, in which mint, bulrushes, and scarlet
_Mimulus_ were striving for the mastery. But the _Mimulus_ was the most
wonderful I ever saw. It stood four or five feet high--a patch of
it--strong and vigorous, and covered with its handsome, large scarlet
flowers, a sight to be remembered. This species is often cultivated in
gardens.
[Illustration SCARLET GILIA--_Gilia Aggregata_.]
SNOW-PLANT.
_Sarcodes sanguinea_, Torr. Heath Family.
Fleshy, glandular-pubescent plants; six inches to over a foot
high; bright red; without green foliage; having, in place of
leaves, fleshy scales, with glandular-ciliate margins.
_Flowers._--Short-pediceled. _Sepals._--Five. _Corolla._--Six
lines long; campanulate; with five-lobed limb. _Stamens._--Ten.
Anthers two-celled; opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled;
globose. Style stout. Stigma capitate. _Hab._--Throughout the
Sierras, from four to nine thousand feet elevation.
I shall never forget finding my first snow-plant. It was upon a perfect
August day in the Sierras. Following the course of a little rill which
wound among mosses and ferns through the open forest where noble fir shafts
rose on every hand, I came unexpectedly upon this scarlet miracle, standing
in the rich, black mold in a sheltered nook in the wood. A single ray of
strong sunlight shone upon it, leaving the wood around it dark, so that it
stood out like a single figure in a _tableau vivant_. There was something
so personal, so glowing, and so lifelike about it, that I almost fancied I
could see the warm life-blood pulsing and quivering through it. I knelt to
examine it. In lieu of leaves, the plant was supplied with many overlapping
scalelike bracts of a flesh-tint. These were quite rigid below and closely
appressed to the stem, but above they became looser and curled gracefully
about among the vivid red bells.
I had heard that the plant was a root parasite; so it was with much
interest and great care I dug about it with my trowel. But I failed to find
its root connected with any other. I have since learned that it is now
considered one of those plants akin to the fungi, which in some mysterious
way draw their nourishment from decaying or decomposing matter.
I carried my prize home, where it retained its beauty for a number of days.
I afterward found many of them. They gradually follow the receding snows up
the heights; so that late in the season one must climb for them.
[Illustration SNOW-PLANT--_Sarcodes sanguinea_.]
The name "snow-plant" is very misleading, because from it one naturally
expects to find the plant growing upon the snow. But this is rarely or
never the case, for it is _after_ the melting of the snow that it pushes
its way aboveground.
Late in the season the plant usually has one or more well-formed young
plants underground at its base. These are all ready to come forth the next
season at the first intimation that the snow has gone, which easily
accounts for its marvelously rapid growth. By the end of August, the
seed-vessels are well developed, and as large as a small marble, but
flattened; and by that time the plants have lost their brilliant coloring,
and become dull and faded.
It is said that the stems have been boiled and eaten, and found quite
palatable; but this would seem to the lover of the beautiful like eating
the showbread from the ark of Nature's tabernacle.
SOUTHERN SCARLET LARKSPUR.
_Delphinium cardinale_, Hook. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.
_Stems._--Three to ten feet tall. Leaves.--Large; five- to
seven-lobed nearly to the base, the lobes three- to five-cleft,
with long-pointed segments. _Flowers._--Large.
_Sepals._--Lanceolate; eight lines or more long; rotately
spreading; the spur an inch or more long; pointed. _Upper
petals._--Orange, tipped with red; pointed; standing
prominently forward. (Otherwise as _D. nudicaule_.) _Hab._--The
mountains, from Ventura County to San Diego.
During all the long springtime, Nature has been quietly making her
preparations for a grand floral _denouement_ to take place about mid-June.
If we go out into the mountains of the south at that season, we shall be
confronted with a blaze of glory, the like of which we have probably never
witnessed before. This is due to the brilliant spires of the scarlet
larkspur, which sometimes rise to a height of ten feet!
One writer likens the appearance of these blossoms, as they grow in dense
masses, to a hill on fire; and Mr. Sturtevant writes: "To come upon a large
group of these plants in full bloom for the first time, is an event never
to be forgotten. I first saw a mass of them in the distance from the top of
a hill. Descending, I came upon them in such a position that the rays of
the setting sun intensified the brilliancy of their fiery orange-scarlet
color. I gathered a large armful of stalks, from three to seven feet high,
and placed them in water. They continued to expand for several weeks in
water."
There is a general resemblance between this and the northern scarlet
larkspur, but the clusters of this are far larger and denser, and the
individual flowers are finer. The half-opened buds more resemble the open
flowers of _D. nudicaule_; but the fully expanded flowers have the form of
some of the finest of the blue larkspurs.
The plants affect a sandy soil or one of decomposed granite.
WESTERN CARDINAL-FLOWER.
_Lobelia splendens_, Willd. Lobelia Family.
_Stems._--Two to four feet tall; slender, smooth or nearly so.
_Leaves._--Alternate; mostly sessile; lanceolate or almost
linear; glandular-denticulate. _Flowers._--In an elongated,
wandlike raceme; cardinal red. _Calyx._--Five-cleft.
_Corolla._--With straight tube, over an inch long and split
down the upper side; border two-lipped; upper lip with two
rather erect lobes; lower spreading and three-cleft, with lobes
three to six lines long. _Stamens._--Five; united into a tube
above. Anthers somewhat hairy. _Ovary._--Two-celled. Style
simple. Stigma two-lobed. _Hab._--San Diego, San Bernardino,
and Los Angeles Counties, and eastward to Texas.
The Western cardinal-flower quite closely resembles _L. cardinalis_ of the
East, differing from it in a few minor points only. I have never been
fortunate enough to see it; but I am told that it is a magnificent plant,
and that from July to September many a wet spot in our southern mountain
cañons is made gay with its brilliant blossoms.
Of the Eastern plant Mr. Burroughs writes: "But when vivid color is wanted,
what can surpass or equal our cardinal-flower? There is a glow about this
flower, as if color emanated from it as from a live coal. The eye is
baffled and does not seem to reach the surface of the petal; it does not
see the texture or material part as it does in other flowers, but rests in
a steady, still radiance. It is not so much something colored as it is
color itself. And then the moist, cool, shady places it affects usually,
where it has no rivals, and where the large, dark shadows need just such a
dab of fire! Often, too, we see it double, its reflected image in some dark
pool heightening its effect."
HUMMING-BIRD'S TRUMPET. CALIFORNIA FUCHSIA.
_Zauschneria Californica_, Presl. Evening-Primrose Family.