Part 10

_Leaves._--Leathery; dark green, veined with white; one or two inches long. _Scape._--Four to nine inches high. _Calyx._--Five-parted. _Petals._--Six lines or so long; white. _Stamens._--Ten. Anthers opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style long; curved. _Hab._--The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County, and northward.

The great coniferous forests of our higher mountains afford homes for many interesting members of the Heath family. A trip to the Sierras in August will yield many a prize to the flower-lover. _Pyrolas_, with waxen clusters, vie with _Pipsissiwas_; the weird looking _Pterospora_ rears its uncanny, gummy stems, clothed with small, yellowish bells, while an occasional glimpse of a blood-red spike betrays the most wonderful of them all--the snow-plant.

Of the _Pyrolas_ we made the acquaintance of three in this region. These pretty plants are called "shinleaf," because the leaves of some of the species were used by the English peasantry as plasters which they applied to bruises or sores. _Pyrola picta_, with its rich leathery, white-veined leaves and clusters of whitish, waxen flowers, was quite plentiful and always a delight to meet. _Pyrola dentata_, Smith, we often found growing with it. This has spatulate, wavy-margined leaves; which are pale and not veined with white, and its scapes are more slender. It never was so attractive or vigorous a plant as the other.

A ramble in the woods one day brought us to the brink of a charming stream, whose pure, ice-cold waters babbled along most invitingly. Following its course, we found ourselves in a delightfully cool, moist thicket, where, nestling in the deep shade, we found the beautiful, rich, glossy leaves of _Pyrola rotundifolia, var. bracteata_, Gray. The leaves are roundish, of a beautiful, bright chrome green, highly polished, and the delicate flowers are rose-pink. This is called "Indian lettuce" and "canker lettuce," and a tincture of the fresh plant is used in medicine for the same purposes as chimaphila. _P. aphylla_, Smith, is easily distinguished by the absence of leaves. It has flesh-colored stems, and its flowers are sometimes of the same color, and sometimes white. This is found in the Coast Ranges.

PEARLY EVERLASTING FLOWER.

_Anaphalis Margaritacea_, Benth. Composite Family.

_Stems._--One to three feet high; leafy up to the flowers. _Leaves._--Alternate; sessile; lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; two to four inches long; white-woolly, at length becoming green above. _Heads._--Of filiform disk-flowers only. _Involucre._--Of many rows of pearly white, pointed scales, not longer than the flowers, resembling ray-flowers. _Hab._--Widely distributed over the northern parts of America and Asia.

Our wild everlasting flowers are very difficult of determination, and are comprised under at least three genera, _Gnaphalium_, _Anaphalis_, and _Antennaria_. The word _Anaphalis_ is from the same root as the word _Gnaphalium_, and the species have quite the aspect of _Gnaphalium_.

The flowers of the pearly everlasting have a peculiarly pure pearly look before they are entirely open, and their sharp-pointed little scales give them a prim, set look, like very regular, tiny white roses. There is a hint of green in them, but they are never of the dirty yellowish-white of the cudweed, nor have they the slippery-elm-like fragrance of the latter. When fully expanded, the centers are brown. The leaves, which at length become a dark, shining green, make a fine contrast with the permanently white-woolly stems. The flower-clusters are loosely compound.

WASHINGTON LILY. SHASTA LILY.

_Lilium Washingtonianum_, Kell. Lily Family.

_Hab._--Throughout the Sierras from three to six thousand feet elevation.

I shall never forget the thrill of delight I felt on first beholding this noble white lily, some years ago, in an open fir forest near Mt. Shasta. I had often heard of it, but never dared hope it would be my privilege to gather it for myself in its own native haunts.

The blossoms somewhat resemble those of the ruby lily, but the petals have longer claws and are more loosely put together. They are fragrant, but their perfume is not to be compared with that of the ruby lily.

Mr. Purdy once saw, upon a single great mountain-side, ten thousand of these wonderful plants, upbearing their beautiful, pure lilies--a sight outrivaling the poet's vision of the golden daffodils.

The Shasta lily is never found in the Coast Ranges. Another species, _L. Parryi_, Wats., resembling this in the form of its flowers, is found in the San Bernardino Mountains. This is known as the "lemon lily," and has clear yellow flowers, dotted sparingly with deeper yellow. It is a charming flower, and is always found in shaded, springy places in cool cañons.

LABRADOR TEA.

_Ledum glandulosum_, Nutt. Heath Family.

Shrubs two to six feet high. _Leaves._--Alternate; short-petioled; oblong or oval; an inch or two long; coriaceous; sprinkled beneath with resin-dots. _Flowers._--White; in terminal and axillary clusters. _Calyx._--Five-cleft. _Petals._--Five; three lines long; rotately spreading. _Stamens._--Four to ten. Anthers opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style filiform, persistent. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges, from Mendocino County northward, and through the Sierras.

Our Labrador tea is a comely shrub, found in the mountains at an elevation of four thousand feet and upward. Its small, leathery leaves are miniature copies of those of the Californian rhododendron, differing from them, however, in the sprinkling of resin-dots upon the under surface.

Upon seeing the flowers of this shrub for the first time, one is apt to imagine it a member of the Rose family, something akin to the cherry, with its clusters of small white flowers of a bitter fragrance; but a glance at the anthers, with their terminal pores, tells the story quickly.

A tea made from the leaves is, with many people, a valued remedy for rheumatism.

This little shrub is much dreaded by sheepmen, who claim that it poisons their flocks. It has been suggested that it would be an excellent thing to have it widely planted as a means of reducing these bands of "hoofed locusts," as Mr. Muir terms them--these marauders who trample down so much beauty, and leave desolation everywhere in their wake.

PIPSISSIWA. PRINCE'S PINE.

_Chimaphila Menziesii_, Spreng. Heath Family.

_Stems._--Six inches high. _Leaves._--Six to eighteen lines long; dark green, sometimes variegated with white; leathery. _Flowers._--One to three. _Calyx._--Five-parted; white. _Petals._--Five; waxen-white or pinkish. _Stamens._--Ten. Filaments enlarged and hairy in the middle. Anthers two-celled; opening terminally. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style short. Stigma button-like. _Hab._--The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County.

The prince's pine is a charming little plant, and may be found beneath the undergrowth in the great coniferous woods of the Sierras, where it sits demurely with bowed head, like some cloistered nun engaged with her own meditations. It has an exquisite perfume, like that of the lily of the valley.

The common prince's pine of the Eastern States--_C. umbellata_--is more rare with us, though it is found through somewhat the same range as the above. It is a more vigorous plant than the other, has from four to seven purplish flowers in the cluster, while its leaves are never spotted.

In the East, from the leaves of this species is manufactured the drug "chimaphila," which is valued as a tonic and astringent, also as a remedy for cataract.

GROUNDSEL-TREE.

_Baccharis pilularis_, DC. Composite Family.

Evergreen dioecious shrubs, one to twelve feet high, with angled or striate branches. _Leaves._--Alternate; sessile; obovate; cuneate; obtuse; coarsely toothed; leathery; one inch or less long. _Flower-heads._--Crowded at the ends of the branchlets; four lines long; one or two across; without ray-flowers. _Involucres._--Oblong; of many imbricated scales. _Sterile heads._--With funnel-form, five-lobed corollas. _Fertile heads._--With filiform corollas, mixed with a dense white silky pappus, which soon elongates. _Hab._--All along the Coast.

In the fall, the dark-green foliage of the groundsel-tree is relieved by its abundant small white flower-clusters. The flowers of the male shrub are never very beautiful, being usually of a yellowish or dirty white; indeed, so little resembling the other, as to appear like a separate species. But when the white silk down of the female shrub is fully expanded, its boughs are laden as with drifted snow. This lavish provision of silk is designed by nature for the wafting abroad of the seed.

It varies greatly in size and habit. Upon exposed, wind-swept sandhills it is low and close-cropped, but in more favorable localities, where the soil is rich and the climate more genial, it responds graciously to the changed conditions, becoming one of our most picturesque shrubs.

Growing and blooming at the same time with the above, may be found its near relative--_B. Douglasii_, DC. This does not aspire to shrubhood, but its tall stems, with their lanceolate, somewhat glutinous leaves, sometimes reach four feet in height, bearing at summit their pretty Ageratum-like, white flower-clusters. It loves the sandy soil of creek-banks and low fields, and is abundant from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

LARGE WHITE MOUNTAIN DAISY.

_Erigeron Coulteri_, T.C. Porter. Composite Family.

_Stem._--Six to twenty inches high; leafy; bearing solitary or rarely two or three large, slender-peduncled heads. _Leaves._--Obovate to oblong; entire or with several sharp teeth; thin. _Flower-heads._--Of yellow disk-flowers, and usually pure white ray-flowers. _Disk._--Half an inch wide. _Rays._--Fifty to seventy; narrowly linear; six lines or more long. _Hab._--The Sierras; also the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

"High on the crest of the blossoming grasses, Bending and swaying, with face toward the sky, Stirred by the lightest west wind as it passes, Hosts of the silver-white daisy-stars lie."

No fairer sight could be imagined than a mountain meadow filled with these large, pure-white, feathery daisies.

CALIFORNIAN FALSE HELLEBORE.

_Veratrum Californicum_, Durand. Lily Family.

_Stems._--Stout; three to seven feet high. _Leaves._--Oval; narrowing to lanceolate; sessile; sheathing; four to twelve inches long. _Flowers._--Greenish-white in a large panicle, with usually ascending branches. _Stamens and pistils_ in the same flowers, or in separate ones. _Pedicels._--About two lines long. _Perianth segments._--Six; spreading; oblanceolate; their bases thickened and green or brownish; upper margins sometimes minutely toothed; three to eight lines long. _Stamens._--Six. Anthers confluently one-celled. _Ovary._--Three-celled. Styles three, divergent. _Hab._--The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County northward to the Columbia; also eastward.

The false hellebore may be found in midsummer in the mountains. It grows along watercourses, and often covers rich, moist meadows, where its stems rise from three to seven feet, with their coarsely ribbed, boat-shaped leaves and large panicles of greenish-white flowers. When at its best it is a rather fine, showy thing, but its leaves are often perforated by some insect, and present a ragged, untidy appearance.

The mountaineers commonly call this plant "skunk cabbage," a deplorable misnomer, because it is in no sense merited; and, moreover, we have a plant to which the title more rightfully belongs. The root and young shoots are a violent poison, and are fatal to animals which are unfortunate enough to crop them.

Another species--_V. fimbriatum_, Gray--a smaller plant, is found upon the plains in Mendocino County. It may be distinguished from the above by its more slender leaves, its woolly flower-panicle, and its decidedly fringed flower-petals.

II. YELLOW

[_Yellow or occasionally or partially yellow flowers not described in the Yellow Section._

_Described in the White Section:--_

CALOCHORTUS VENUSTUS--Mariposa Lily, or Tulip. LILIUM PARRYI--Lemon-Lily. VIOLA OCELLATA--Heart's-ease.

_Described in the Pink Section:--_

LESSINGIA GERMANORUM--Yellow Lessingia.

_Described in the Blue and Purple Section:--_

FRITILLARIA PUDICA--Yellow Fritillary. IRIS MACROSIPHON--Ground-Iris. SISYRINCHIUM CALIFORNICUM--Golden-eyed Grass. TRILLIUM SESSILE--Californian Trillium.

_Described in the Red Section:--_

CASTILLEIA PARVIFLORA--Indian Paint-Brush. CEREUS EMORYI--Velvet Cactus. PENTSTEMON CENTRANTHIFOLIUS--Scarlet Bugler.

_Described in the Miscellaneous Section:--_

CYPRIPEDIUM CALIFORNICUM--Californian Lady's Slipper.]

SUN-CUPS.

_OEnothera ovata_, Nutt. Evening-Primrose Family.

_Root._--A thick tap-root. _Leaves._--All radical; oblong-lanceolate; smooth; ciliate. _Flowers._--Solitary in the axils; bright golden yellow. _Calyx-tube._--Filiform; one to five inches long; limb of four lanceolate, reflexed divisions. _Petals._--Four; three to ten lines long. _Stamens._--Eight. _Ovary._--Four-celled; underground. Style filiform. Stigma capitate. _Fruit._--A ribbed capsule. _Hab._--Near the coast from San Francisco to Monterey.

This little evening primrose is an exceedingly interesting plant, although it is not of very wide distribution. The flat rosettes of leaves sometimes measure over a foot across, and are thickly sown with the bright golden flowers, large in proportion to the size of the plants. A flower or bud is found in the axil of every leaf, diminishing in size toward the center, one plant sometimes having a hundred blossoms and buds. These flowers are peculiarly fresh and winsome, and were they not so abundant where they grow they would doubtless be considered very beautiful.

A strange feature of the plant is its flower-stem, which is not a flower-stem at all, but a very much prolonged calyx-tube, the seed-vessel being just within the surface of the ground.

We wonder how these imprisoned seeds are going to escape and find lodgment to start new colonies elsewhere. Perhaps the moles and gophers could tell something about it if they would.

The leaves of these little plants are sometimes used for salads.

These blossoms are often erroneously called "cow-slips."

COMMON BUTTERCUP.

_Ranunculus Californicus_, Benth. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.

_Stems._--Slender; branching; six to eighteen inches high. _Radical-leaves._--Commonly pinnately ternate; the leaflets cut into three to seven usually linear lobes. Divisions of the stem-leaves usually narrower. _Flowers._--Five to ten lines in diameter; shining golden yellow. _Sepals._--Green; strongly reflexed. _Petals._--Ten to fourteen; obovate; each with a small scale at the base. _Stamens._--Numerous. _Pistils._ Numerous; on a receptacle. Ovaries flattened. Stigmas recurved. _Hab._--Throughout Western California into Oregon.

"The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice; And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean To be some happy creature's palace."

The first clear, beautiful note of a lark has been heard; skies are blue and fields are green; little frogs are filling the air with their music;--and the buttercups are here. The fields are full of them, and their bright golden eyes starring the meadows, bring a gladness to the face of nature. The children wade knee-deep in their gold, filling their hands with treasure; and yonder, where their golden masses cover the slopes, King Midas may have passed, transforming the earth with his magical touch.

Because some of the buttercups grow where frogs abound, Pliny bestowed the Latin name _Ranunculus_, meaning "little frog."

The Indians, who seem to have a use for everything, parch the seeds of our common buttercup and beat them to a flour, which they eat without the further formality of cooking. This flour is said to have the peculiar rich flavor of parched corn.

We have a number of other species of buttercup--some of them denizens of marshy spots; but the common field buttercup is widest-spread and best known.

CREAM-CUPS.

_Platystemon Californicus_, Benth. Poppy Family.

Delicate hairy herbs. _Stems._--A span or two high. _Leaves._--Mostly opposite; sessile; two to four inches long. _Flowers._--Axillary; long-peduncled; an inch or so across. _Sepals._--Three; falling early. _Petals._--Six, in two rows; cream-color, often with a yellow spot at base. _Stamens._--Numerous. Filaments broad; petaloid. _Pistils._--Six to twenty-five; united in a ring at first; afterward separating. Stigmas terminal. _Hab._--Throughout California.

The cream-cups are delicate, hairy plants of the early springtime, which often grow in masses and take possession of whole fields. They seem to be more vigorous in the south, and produce larger flowers there than in the north, often having as many as nine petals. The delicate, nodding green buds (like miniature poppy-buds) soon throw off their outer wrappings, and, emerging from captivity, gradually assume an erect position and unfurl their lovely, pure, straw-colored petals to their widest extent. These blossoms open for several successive days.

The genus takes its name from the flat filaments. The numerous slender pistils are so cleverly joined together into a cylinder, that they appear like a hollow, one-celled ovary. But a cross-section will show the separate ovaries under a glass.

Some people like the odor of these flowers; but I must confess to a lack of appreciation of it. I suspect its charm must exist in some pleasant association.

COPA DE ORO. CALIFORNIA POPPY. TOROSA.

_Eschscholtzia Californica_, Cham. Poppy Family.

_Stems._--Twelve to eighteen inches high; branching. _Leaves._--Alternate; finely dissected; glaucous. _Flowers._--Two or three inches across; usually orange; but ranging from that to white. Summit of the peduncle enlarging into a cup-shaped torus or disk, upon the upper inner surface of which are borne the calyx, corolla, and stamens. _Calyx._--A pointed green cap, falling early. _Petals._--Four. _Stamens._--Numerous, in four groups, in front of the petals. Anthers linear. _Ovary._--One-celled. Style short. Stigmas four to six; unequal. _Capsule._--Cylindrical; ten-nerved; two or three inches long. _Hab._--Throughout California.

Thy satin vesture richer is than looms Of Orient weave for raiment of her kings! Not dyes of olden Tyre, not precious things Regathered from the long-forgotten tombs Of buried empires, not the iris plumes That wave upon the tropics' myriad wings, Not all proud Sheba's queenly offerings Could match the golden marvel of thy blooms. For thou art nurtured from the treasure-veins Of this fair land; thy golden rootlets sup Her sands of gold--of gold thy petals spun. Her golden glory, thou! On hills and plains, Lifting, exultant, every kingly cup Brimmed with the golden vintage of the sun.

--INA D. COOLBRITH.

It is difficult to exaggerate the charms of this wonderful flower. When reproduced in countless millions, its brilliant blossoms fairly cover the earth; and far away upon distant mountain-slopes, bright patches of red gold denote that league after league of it lies open to the sun. It revels in the sunshine, and not until the morning is well advanced does it begin to unfurl its tightly rolled petals.

In the early days, when Spanish vessels sailed up and down the newly-discovered coast, the mariners, looking inland, saw the flame of the poppies upon the hills and called this "the land of fire." They said that the altar-cloth of San Pascual was spread upon the hills, and, filled with a devotional spirit, they disembarked to worship upon the shore.

This flower is now cultivated in many parts of the world. But one can form no conception of it, pale and languishing in a foreign garden. One must go to its native hillsides to get any idea of its prodigal beauty.

The common title, "California poppy," though it has been widely used, is open to the objection that it belongs more properly to another flower, _Papaver Californicum_. The generic name is dissonant and harsh. Why not replace it by one of the more euphonious Spanish titles--"amapola," "dormidera," "torosa," or, most charmingly appropriate of all, "copa de oro,"--"cup of gold"?

There are many forms of _Eschscholtzia_, and of late the original species, _E. Californica_, has been divided into a number of new species, which are, however, difficult of determination.

The Indians of Placer County, it is said, boil the herbage, or roast it by means of hot stones, lay it in water afterward, and then eat it as a green. A drug made from this plant is used in medicine as a harmless substitute for morphine and as a remedy for headache and insomnia, and it has an especially excellent effect with children. The Spanish-Californians make a hair-oil, which they prize highly, by frying the whole plant in olive oil and adding some choice perfume. This is said to promote the growth of the hair and to make it glossy.

MOCK-ORANGE. GOURD. CHILI-COJOTE. CALABAZILLA.

_Cucurbita foetidissima_, HBK. Gourd Family.

_Stems._--Long; coarse; trailing. _Leaves._--Alternate; petioled; triangular-cordate; six to twelve inches long; acute; rough. _Tendrils._--Three- to five-cleft. _Flowers._--Solitary; yellow; three or four inches long; monoecious. _Calyx-tube._--Six lines long, equaling the five linear lobes. _Corolla._--Campanulate; five-cleft to the middle or lower; with recurved lobes. _Stamens._--In the male flowers two with two-celled anthers, and one with one; in the female all three rudimentary. _Ovary._--Three-celled. Style short. Stigmas three; two-lobed. _Fruit._--Orange-like, but with a hard rind. _Syn._--_C. perennis_, Gray. _Hab._--San Diego to San Joaquin County.

The rough, ill-smelling foliage of the Chili-cojote is a common sight in Southern California, where it may be seen trailing over many a field; but woe to the negligent farmer who allows this pest to get a foothold--for it will cost him a small fortune to eradicate it. It sends down into the earth an enormous root, six feet or so long, and often as broad. When the gourds are ripe, these vines look like the dumping-ground for numerous poor, discarded oranges.

Notwithstanding its unsavory character, the various parts of this vine are put to use--specially among the Spanish-Californians and the Indians. The root is a purgative more powerful than croton-oil. When pounded to a pulp, it is used as soap by the Spanish-Californians, who aver that it cleanses as nothing else can; but rinsing must be very thorough--for any particles remaining in the garments prove very irritating to the skin. The leaves are highly valued for medicinal purposes, and the pulp of the green fruit, mixed with soap, is said to remove stains from clothing. The Indians eat the seed, when ground and made into a mush. The early Californian women used the gourds as darning-balls.

This vine is a near relative of the pumpkins and squashes of our gardens.

The flowers are said to be violet-scented.

WATER-HOLLY. MAHONIA.

_Berberis nervosa_, Pursh. Barberry Family.