decumbent; one to three feet long. _Leaves._--Mostly alternate; sessile;
narrowly lanceolate to ovate; six to eighteen lines long.
_Flowers._--Bright scarlet; in a loose spike; funnel-form; twenty lines
long. _Calyx._--Scarlet; four-cleft. _Petals._--Four; obcordate; borne on
the calyx-tube. _Stamens._--Eight. Filaments and style more or less
exserted. _Ovary._--Four-celled; inferior. Stigma four-lobed. _Hab._--From
Plumas County to Mexico; and the Rocky Mountains east of the Great Basin.
In late summer and through the autumn, the brilliant blossoms of the
California Fuchsia brighten the sombre tones of our dry, open hill-slopes.
Its aspect is one of gay insouciance, which would drive away melancholy
despite oneself, and though other plants have been put to rout, one by one,
by the sun's fierce glare, nothing daunted, it puts on its brightest hues,
like a true apostle of cheerfulness. It has been cultivated for some time,
and is highly prized in Eastern gardens, where it has earned for itself the
pretty title of "humming-bird's trumpet." It is not confined to our limits,
but extends southward into Mexico, and eastward to Wyoming. We have seen it
flourishing in the Sierras, where it is particularly beautiful.
It is called "balsamea" by the Spanish-Californians, who use a wash of it
as a remedy for cuts and bruises.
It varies greatly in the size and hairiness of its leaves, in the form of
its flowers, which are broadly or narrowly funnel-form, and in the
exsertion of the stamens and style. The _var. microphylla_ has a woolly
pubescence, linear leaves often very small, three or four lines long, and
other small leaves crowded in their axils. This is found in the south.
[Illustration CALIFORNIA FUCHSIA--_Zauschneria Californica_.]
There is no glory in star or blossom
Till looked upon by a loving eye;
There is no fragrance in April breezes
Till breathed with joy as they wander by.
--WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
VI. MISCELLANEOUS
MUILLA.
_Muilla maritima_, Benth. Lily Family.
_Root._--A small membranous-coated corm. _Leaves._--Radical;
linear; equaling the slender scape. _Scapes._--Three to twelve
inches high, bearing an umbel of small greenish-white flowers,
subtended by several small lanceolate to linear bracts.
_Pedicels._--Five to fifteen; two to twelve lines long.
_Perianth._--Almost rotate; of six segments; two or three lines
long. _Stamens._--Six. _Ovary._--Globose; three-celled.
_Hab._--The Coast, from Marin County to Monterey; also inland.
The generic name of this little plant is _Allium_ reversed.
Though it has a coated bulb like the onion, it has none of its garlic
flavor. It differs from the other umbellate-flowered genera of the Lily
family in not having its flowers jointed upon their pedicels. It thus seems
to be a link between the onion, on the one hand, and the beautiful
_Brodiaeas_ and _Bloomerias_, on the other. It is not at all an attractive
plant, though its blossoms are pleasantly fragrant.
It is found on the borders of salt marshes and in subsaline soils in the
interior, as well as upon high hills in stony soils.
Another species--_M. serotina_, Greene--common upon inland hills in the
south, is quite a delicate, pretty flower. Its greenish-white blossoms,
with dainty Nile-green anthers, are nearly an inch across, and each segment
has a pale-green mid-nerve. The plant has a number of very long, slender
leaves, and its flower-stems are sometimes two feet tall and very slender.
SILK-TASSEL TREE. QUININE-BUSH.
_Garrya elliptica_, Dougl. Dogwood Family.
Shrubs five to eight feet high. _Leaves._--Leathery;
white-woolly beneath; wavy-margined. _Flowers._--Of two kinds
on separate shrubs; in solitary or clustered catkins; and
without petals. _Staminate catkins._--Two to ten inches long,
consisting of a flexile chain of funnel-form bracts, depending
one from another; each having six flowers like clappers. These
flowers with four hairy sepals and four stamens with distinct
filaments. _Pistillate catkins._--Of similar structure but
stouter, more rigid. Their flowers without floral envelopes;
pistils two; fleshy and hairy; stigmas filiform; dark.
_Hab._--Near the Coast from Monterey County to Washington.
This shrub might easily be mistaken for one of our young live-oaks, with
its leathery leaves and gray bark; but the leaves are opposite, and not
alternate, as with the oaks. The bark and leaves have an intensely bitter
principle, similar to quinine and equally efficacious.
Early in February, after the first spell of balmy weather, the bushes put
forth their flowers, and then they are exceedingly beautiful. The long
pale-green chains at the ends of all the branches hang limp and flexile,
shaken with every breath of wind, or, falling over other branches, drape
and festoon the whole shrub exquisitely. The catkins of the female shrub
are stouter and more rigid than those of the male; but when the fruit is
mature, they lengthen out into beautifully tinted clusters of little
papery-coated grapes, which are quite attractive in themselves. This is
cultivated as an ornamental shrub in England.
_G. Fremonti_, Torr., another species, is distinguished by having its
leaves pointed at both ends, not wavy-margined, and not permanently woolly;
and also by its solitary catkins. This is the shrub usually spoken of as
"quinine-bush," "fever-bush," etc., and whose leaves were used as a
substitute for quinine in the early days among the miners. It is said that
its roots, left in the ground after the cutting of the shrub, become
marbled with green, and are then very beautiful for inlaying in ornamental
woodwork.
[Illustration SILK-TASSEL TREE--_Garrya elliptica_.]
CALIFORNIA LAUREL.
_Umbellularia Californica_, Nutt. Laurel Family.
Shrubs or trees, ten to one hundred feet high.
_Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; lanceolate-oblong; two to
four inches long; smooth, shining green; very aromatic.
_Flowers._--In clusters. _Sepals._--Six; greenish-white; two
and a half lines long. _Petals._--None. _Stamens._--Nine; in
three rows; the filaments of the inner row having on either
side, at base, a stalked orange-colored gland.
_Anthers._--Four-celled; the cells opening by uplifting lids.
_Ovary._--One-celled. Style stout. Stigma lobed.
_Fruit._--Olive-like; an inch long; becoming purple.
_Hab._--From Oregon to San Diego.
Early in February we usually have some of our loveliest days. Life is then
pulsing and throbbing everywhere at full tide. The clear sunshine, the
murmur of streams, the odor of the freshly turned sod, the caroling of
larks all are eloquent of the springtime. The whole air is filled with a
strange, spicy fragrance which makes it a delight to breathe. The
California laurel is shaking out a delicious, penetrating odor from its
countless blossoms.
Mr. Sargent refers to this tree as one of the stateliest and most beautiful
inhabitants of the North American forests, and one of the most striking
features of the California landscape.
In France it is now much appreciated and cultivated in parks and gardens.
In Southern California it is only a shrub; but in the central and northern
counties it becomes a magnificent tree, a hundred feet in height and from
four to six feet in diameter. It thrives best in the rich soil along
stream-banks, though it grows also upon hillsides. It would be impossible
to mistake this tree for any other; for its leaves, when crushed, give out
a peculiar pungent odor which, if inhaled too much, will cause headache.
The odor is something like that of bay-rum. The Indians, as well as our own
people, acting upon the homeopathic principle, use them as a remedy for
headache. The oil is also used effectively in toothache, earache, etc., and
enters into the composition of certain patent medicines.
The wood of the laurel is one of the most beautiful employed by the
cabinet-maker, and it is largely used in the manufacture of choice
furniture. The olive-like fruit is ripe by July, and would remain upon the
tree until the next year were not the squirrels so fond of it.
This tree is known in different localities by a variety of names, such as
"spice-bush," "balm of heaven," "sassafras laurel," "cajeput," "California
bay-tree," "California olive," "mountain laurel," and "California laurel."
But the last of these is the one prevalent where its finest forms are
found.
MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY.
_Cercocarpus parvifolius_, Nutt. Rose Family.
Shrubs two to twenty feet high; branching from a thick base.
_Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; cuneate; serrate across
the summit; more or less silky above; densely hoary-tomentose
beneath; six to eighteen lines long. _Flowers._--Mostly
solitary; axillary. _Calyx._--Narrowly tubular, with a
deciduous campanulate five-lobed limb. _Petals._--None.
_Stamens._--Fifteen to twenty-five; on the calyx.
_Ovary._--One-(rarely two-) celled. Style simple. _Fruit._--An
akene with a silky tail, at length becoming three or four
inches long. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges from Lake County to
Southern California.
The mountain mahogany is a common shrub upon the interior hills of the
Coast Ranges; and when one has once made its acquaintance, it is always
easily recognized by its wedge-shaped, dark-green leaves, prominently
veined and notched at the summit. Its flowers, having no petals, are green
and inconspicuous; but the long, solitary plumes of its little fruit are
very noticeable and pretty. Its wood is the heaviest and hardest we have.
Mr. Greene says that its leafy twigs have a sweet, birchy flavor, rendering
them excellent food for cattle in late summer.
DUTCHMAN'S PIPE. PIPE-VINE.
_Aristolochia Californica_, Torr. Birthwort Family.
_Stem._--Woody; climbing. _Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled;
large; ovate-cordate, two to four inches long.
_Flowers._--Greenish, veined with purple.
_Perianth._--Pipe-shaped; the lobes of the lip leather-colored
within. _Anthers._--Six; sessile; adnate in pairs to the thick
style under the broad lobes of the stigma; vertical.
_Stigma._--Three-lobed. _Ovary._--Inferior; six-angled;
six-celled. _Fruit._--A large, leathery pod two inches long.
_Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from Monterey to Marin County.
This odd flower is found rather sparingly in our middle Coast Ranges from
February to April, and in some parts of the Sierra foothills, reaching even
to the Yosemite. As it flowers before the large leaves come out, and the
blossoms are much like dead leaves in color, it requires keen eyes to find
it. It usually grows on low ground, in a tangle of shrubs under the trees,
often festooning gracefully from branch to branch. Before the flowers are
fully open, the buds resemble ugly little brown ducks hanging from the
vine.
The common blue-black butterfly is often seen hovering over this vine, and
it is said that its caterpillar is so fond of the fruit that it rarely
permits one to ripen.
Later in the season, the large cordate leaves are quite conspicuous, and
cause people to wonder what may have been the flower of so fine a vine.
TURK'S-HEAD CACTUS. TURBAN CACTUS.
_Echinocactus viridescens_, Nutt. Cactus Family.
Depressed, hemispherical, fleshy, leafless plants, with from
thirteen to twenty-one prominent, vertical ribs, bearing groups
of rigid spines; usually less than a foot in diameter.
_Spines._--Straight or recurved; stout; reddish; transversely
ribbed or ringed. _Flowers._--Sessile; borne about the
depressed woolly center; yellowish-green; about eighteen lines
long. _Sepals._--Many; closely imbricated; merging into the
numerous, oblong, scarious petals; sometimes nerved with red.
_Stamens._--Very many. _Ovary._--One-celled. Stigmas twelve to
fifteen; linear. _Berry._--Pulpy; green; scaly. _Hab._--From
San Diego inland.
The Turk's-head cactus looks very much like the end of a watermelon
protruding from the ground, if one could imagine a watermelon deeply
furrowed and furnished with very formidable spines.
[Illustration DUTCHMAN'S PIPE--_Aristolochia Californica_.]
This plant is abundant near San Diego, growing all over the mesas; and it
is marvelous that horses and cattle are not more often injured by stepping
upon these disagreeable, horrent globes; but long experience has doubtless
taught them the instinct of caution.
The plant is really beautiful when crowned with its circle of gauzy,
yellow-green flowers, which are more like some exquisite artificial
fabrication than real flowers. The fruit of this cactus is slightly acid
and rather pleasant.
The plant is cultivated in Europe under the name of _Echinocactus
Californicus_.
FAIRY BELLS. DROPS OF GOLD.
_Prosartes Hookeri_, Torr. Lily Family.
_Rootstock._--Creeping; spreading. _Stem._--A foot or two high;
branching horizontally. _Leaves._--Alternate; ovate; cordate;
acute; several-nerved; two or three inches long.
_Flowers._--Greenish; one to six; six lines long; pendulous
under the ends of the branches.
_Perianth._--Spreading-campanulate. _Segments._--Six;
lanceolate; arched at the base. _Stamens._--Six; equaling or
exceeding the perianth. _Ovary._--Three-celled. Style slender;
entire. _Fruit._--An obovate, somewhat pubescent berry; golden,
ripening to scarlet. _Syn._--_Disporum Hookeri_, Britt.
_Hab._--The Coast Ranges from Marin County to Santa Cruz; in
shady woods, but not by the water.
In our walks through the April woods, we often notice a fine plant with
branching stems, whose handsomely veined leaves are set obliquely to the
stem and all lie in nearly the same horizontal plane. In our subsequent
meetings with the plant it seems to change but little, and we begin to grow
impatient for the coming of the flower, which, however, seems to show no
disposition to appear. Some day, when bending over a bit of moss or a
fern-frond, or peering into the silk-lined hole of a ground-spider, we
suddenly catch a glimmer of something under the broad leaves of our
hitherto disappointing plant, and hastening to examine it, we find to our
amazement one or more exquisitely formed little green bells hanging from
the tip of each branch. Later these are often succeeded by small berries,
at first golden, and afterward scarlet.
The generic name, _Prosartes_, comes from a Greek word signifying _to hang
from_, and is in allusion to the pendulous flowers. By some authorities
this plant is called _Disporum Hookeri_. The common name, "drops of gold,"
applies to the berry.
Another species _P. Menziesii_, Don.--is found growing along stream-banks
in the Coast Ranges from Marin County northward. This differs from the
above in its longer, more cylindrical, _milk-white_ flowers, and its
salmon-colored berries. It usually blossoms a little later than the other
species, lasting till June.
COMMON MUGWORT.
_Artemisia vulgaris, var. Californica_, Bess. Composite Family.
_Stems._--Rather simple; a foot or two high. _Leaves._--Ample;
slashed downward into long acute lobes; green above;
cottony-woolly beneath; bitter; strong-scented; the upper often
entire, linear or lanceolate. _Flower-heads._--Minute; two
lines high, one broad; composed of tubular disk-flowers only;
greenish, in long, slender, crowded panicles. _Hab._--Near the
Coast, from San Francisco northward.
This is a common weed along our roadsides, and is easily known by its
slashed leaves with silvery under surfaces. These leaves are very bitter.
This is closely allied to the wormwood, and by many people is called
"wormwood."
ARTEMISIA. SAGEBRUSH.
_Artemisia Californica_, Less. Composite Family.
_Stems._--Shrubby; four or five feet high; with many slender
branches. _Leaves._--Alternate; pinnately parted into three- to
seven-filiform divisions; or entire and filiform; an inch or so
long; strong-scented. _Flower-heads._--Very small; two lines or
less across; numerous, in narrow panicles; greenish; composed
of tubular disk-flowers only. _Hab._--Marin County to San
Bernardino.
The _Artemisia_, or, as it is more commonly called, "sagebrush," is an old
friend that we always expect to meet in our walks on rocky hill-slopes. Its
leaves have a clean, bitter fragrance, similar to that of the mugwort, but
sweeter, and when crushed in the hand they emit a strong odor of
turpentine.
Dr. Behr tells me that in the early days the miners laid sprays of it in
their beds to drive away the fleas.
The Spanish-Californians regard it as a panacea for all ills, and use it in
the form of a strong wash to bathe wounds and swellings, with excellent
results.
Another species--_A. tridentata_, Nutt.--is the shrubby form, growing so
abundantly all over the alkali plains of the Great Basin, where it holds
undisputed possession with the prairie-dog and the coyote. It has narrow,
wedge-shaped leaves, which are three-toothed at the apex; and the whole
plant has a strong odor of turpentine.
This is highly esteemed by the Indians as a medicinal plant.
WILD PIE-PLANT. CANAIGRE.
_Rumex hymenosepalus_, Torr. Buckwheat Family.
_Root._--A cluster of Dahlia-like tubers. _Stems._--About two
feet high. _Leaves._--Narrowly oblong or lanceolate; a foot
long or less; acute; undulate; narrowed into a short, very
thick petiole. _Flowers._--Light raisin-color; in a large
panicle a foot or so long. _Perianth._--Of six sepals; the
outer minute; the inner about five lines long, appressed to the
ovary. _Stamens._--Six. _Ovary._--Three-angled; one-celled.
Styles three; short. Stigmas tufted. _Hab._--Dry, sandy plains
of Southern California.
The wild pie-plant is closely related to the garden rhubarb, and also to
the dock and the sorrel. In early days in both Utah and Southern California
housewives used its stems as a substitute for the cultivated pie-plant,
finding them quite acceptable. The Indians have long used the root in the
tanning of buckskins, and they have also found in it a bright
mahogany-brown dye, with which to paint their bodies.
Of late this plant has been attracting much notice under the name
"canaigre," and it is hoped that it will prove a valuable substitute for
tanbark. If it does, we shall hail it with delight as the savior of our
beautiful oak forests. Tannin exists in large quantities in the thick
roots; but it is yet a question whether it will prove remunerative to the
farmer as a crop. At Rialto a company has been formed, which employs many
men to gather and prepare the roots, and there will soon be thousands of
acres of it under cultivation. The tops of the plants, with the small upper
portions of the roots, which have all the eyes upon them, are cut off and
replanted for the next year's crop, while the remainder of the root is
sliced, dried, pulverized, and leached to extract the tannin, which is then
ready for use.
[Illustration CANAIGRE--_Rumex hymenosepalus_.]
The plant is a very noticeable one, with its red leaf-stems and veins and
its large, dense cluster of small raisin-colored flowers, and it is often
seen upon our southern plains. But I am told that over the border in Lower
California it grows in great abundance, covering the ground for miles. It
would seem as though its cultivation might be carried on with best results
where nature produces it so freely.
HORNLESS WOOLLY MILKWEED.
_Gomphocarpus tomentosus_, Gray. Milkweed Family.
Densely white-woolly plants, with milky juice. _Stems._--One to
three feet high. _Leaves._--Two to four inches long.
_Flowers._--Several, in a pendulous cluster on yarnlike
pedicels; lateral upon the stem between the leaves.
_Calyx._--Five-parted; inconspicuous. _Corolla._--Deeply
five-parted; greenish without, pinkish within.
_Stamens._--Five; sunk in the column and alternating with the
five hoods. _Hoods._--Two lines across; saccate; open down the
outer face. _Ovaries._--Two; pointed; capped by a flat stigma.
_Fruit._--A pair of follicles; with many silken-tufted seeds.
_Hab._--Dry hills from San Diego to Monte Diablo.
In the south by late spring the very woolly stems and foliage of this
milkweed become quite noticeable before any hint of blossoms appears. The
thick, gray leaves look as though they might have been cut out of heavy
flannel. By May the flower-clusters begin to take definite form, and at
last the buds open and reveal a most interesting flower, whose structure is
quite complicated. The center of the blossom is occupied by a fleshy
column, in which are sunk the anthers, and upon which are borne certain
round, dark wine-colored bodies called the "hoods," which are in reality
nectaries, holding honey for insect visitors. All the pollen in each
anther-cell consists of a waxy mass, and the adjacent masses of different
anthers are bound together by a gummy, elastic band, suspended upon the rim
of the stigma. The stigma occupies the top of the fleshy column, and forms
a cap, hiding from view the two tubes, or styles, leading down into the
ovaries.
[Illustration HORNLESS WOOLLY MILKWEED--_Gomphocarpus tomentosus_.]
The milkweeds of California are divided between two genera--_Asclepias_ and
_Gomphocarpus_,--the difference between them lying in the presence of a
horn or crest rising out of the hoods in _Asclepias_.
Bees visiting the blossoms of the milkweeds are said to be frequently
disabled by the pollen-masses, which adhere to them in such numbers and
weigh them down so heavily that they cannot climb upon their combs, but
fall down and perish.
MOUNTAIN LADY'S SLIPPER.
_Cypripedium montanum_, Dougl. Orchis Family.
_Stems._--Stout; a foot or two high; leafy. _Leaves._--Four to
six inches long; pointed. _Flowers._--One to three; short
pediceled. _Sepals and petals._--Brownish; eighteen to thirty
lines long; the two lower sepals united nearly to the apex.
_Sac._--An inch long; dull white, veined with purple.
_Anthers._--Two fertile (one on either side of the column); one
sterile, four or five lines long, yellow, with purple spots
longer than the stigma. _Hab._--The mountains from Central
California to the Columbia River.
The mountain lady's slipper is a rare plant with us, which affects cool,
secluded spots in our mountain forests. The plants, of which two or three
usually grow from a creeping rootstock, generally stand where some moisture
seeps out. The leaves are ample and shapely, and the quaint flowers quiet
and elegant in coloring.
The long, twisted sepals and petals and the oval sac give these blossoms
the aspect of some floral daddy-long-legs or some weird brownie of the
wood. We feel that we have fallen upon a rare day when we are fortunate
enough to find these flowers, and we are reminded of Mr. Burroughs' lines:
"How fastidious and exclusive is the _Cypripedium_!... It does not go in
herds, like the commoner plants, but affects privacy and solitude. When I
come upon it in my walks, I seem to be intruding upon some very private and
exclusive company."
[Illustration MOUNTAIN LADY'S SLIPPER.--_Cypripedium montanum_.]
In our Coast Ranges we may look for these blossoms in May.
We have but two or three species of _Cypripedium_. _C. Californicum_, Gray,
is similar to _C. montanum_, but its blossoms have comparatively short
greenish-yellow sepals and petals, and the sac is from white to pale
rose-color. They have a more compact look, and lack the careless grace of
those of the mountain lady's slipper. Their haunts are swamps in open
woodlands in the northern part of the State, where they bloom in August and
September, and are often found in the company of the California
pitcher-plant.
REIN-ORCHIS.
_Habenaria elegans_, Bolander. Orchis Family.
_Root._--An oblong tuber. _Stem._--Rather slender; a foot or
two high. _Leaves._--Two; radical; oblong; three to six inches
long; eighteen lines to two inches wide. _Flowers._--Small;
light green; in a dense but slender spike. Sepals and petals
about equal; two lines long; obtuse. _Lip._--Similar, with a
filiform spur three to five lines long. (Otherwise like _H.
leucostachys_.) _Hab._--Near the coast, from Monterey to
Vancouver Island.