Part 14

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.

_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."

_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.

_Stems._--Erect; a foot or two high. _Leaves._--Two or three inches long; linear or oblong-lanceolate; sessile. _Flowers._--Salmon-color; crowded at the summit of the stem. _Calyx._--With obconic tube and broad, obtuse lobes. _Corolla._--Narrowly funnel-form, with tube an inch long, and five-lobed border almost as broad. (See _Gilia_.) _Hab._--Widely distributed.

This plant was formerly placed in the genus _Collomia_; but that genus was not well founded, and all its species have now been transferred to _Gilia_. From the resemblance of its showy buff or salmon-colored flowers to the _Bouvardias_ of our gardens, these plants are popularly known as "wild Bouvardia." The blossoms are found in early summer, and grow usually in dry places, exposed to the sun.

LITTLE ALPINE LILY.

_Lilium parvum_, Kell. Lily Family.

_Bulbs._--Small; of short, thick, jointed scales. _Stem._--Slender; eighteen inches to six feet high. _Leaves._--Scattered, or in whorls; two to five inches long; an inch or less broad; rich green. _Flowers._--Orange-vermilion, dotted with purple; two to fifty; scattered or somewhat whorled. _Capsule._--Sub-spherical; six to nine lines long. _Hab._--The High Sierras, from Yosemite Valley to Lake Tahoe.

Passing from the parched and dusty plains of our central valleys in July and August, we are transported as though upon the magic tapestry of Prince Houssain into a heavenly region of springtime, where the streams, fed by the snow lying in shadowy mountain fastnesses, gush through plushy emerald meadows, starred with millions of daisies and bordered by luxuriant tangles of larkspurs, columbines, monk's-hoods, lupines, and a thousand other charming plants--a veritable flower-lover's paradise.

Here from the thickets, standing with their roots in the rich, loamy soil of the brookside, gleam the small orange blossoms of the little alpine lily--little only in flower, for the slender stems often rise to a height of six feet, producing several whorls of rich green leaves. These lilies are but an inch or an inch a half long, with their perianth-segments yellow or orange below and deeper orange-vermilion above, their tips only being rolled backward.

GOLDEN YARROW.

_Eriophyllum confertiflorum_, Gray. Composite Family.

White-woolly plants, at length smooth. _Stems._--A foot or two high. _Leaves._--Cuneate in outline; divided into three to seven narrow linear divisions. _Flowers._--Golden yellow; in densely crowded flat-topped clusters. _Heads._--Small; of disk- and ray-flowers. _Rays._--Four or five; broadly oval or roundish. _Involucre._--Oval; of about five thin bracts; two lines long. _Hab._--From San Francisco to the Sierras, and southward to San Diego.

In early summer many a dry, rocky hill-slope is ablaze with the brilliant flowers of the golden yarrow. The brown-mottled butterfly may often be seen hovering over it, or delicately poising upon its golden table, fanning his wings.

_E. caespitosum_, Dougl., is a very handsome species with solitary golden flower-heads an inch or so across. Its leaves are broader and not so finely divided, and some of the upper ones are linear and entire. This is found throughout California.

TARWEED. WILD COREOPSIS.

_Madia elegans_, Don. Composite Family.

Usually viscid throughout. _Stems._--Three to six feet high. _Leaves._--Crowded at the base of the stem; six to ten inches long; small above. _Flower-heads._--Of both ray- and disk-flowers. _Rays._--Twelve to fifteen; one inch long; three-lobed at the apex; yellow, sometimes with a dark-red base. _Involucre._--With one series of scales, each clasping a ray. _Hab._--Throughout California, and in Oregon and Nevada.

This is one of the most beautiful of all our tarweeds. Its golden, Coreopsis-like flowers open after sunset, and close at the first warmth of the morning rays.

All the _Madias_ are used medicinally by old Spanish settlers.

_Madia sativa_, Molina, is one of our most troublesome species, because its viscid secretion is so very abundant. The plants are tall, but the flowers are inconspicuous, owing to the smallness or absence of the rays. It is native of Chile as well as of California.

An oil of excellent quality was made from its seeds in that country before the olive was so abundant.

LEOPARD-LILY. TIGER-LILY.

_Lilium pardalinum_, Kell. Lily Family.

Bulbs consisting of forking rhizomes, covered with small, erect imbricated scales; often forming matted masses. _Stems._--Three to ten feet high. _Leaves._--Usually whorled, with some scattered above and below; lanceolate; three to seven inches long. _Flowers._--Few to many; long-pediceled. _Perianth segments._--Six; two or three inches long; six to nine lines wide; strongly revolute; with orange base and reddish or scarlet tips; spotted or dotted with purple on the lower half. _Stamens._--Six. Anthers versatile. _Ovary._--Three-celled. Style club-shaped. Stigma capitate. _Capsule._--Eighteen lines or more long.

_Hab._--The Coast Ranges and Sierras, from Santa Barbara County to British Columbia, and eastward.

No more magnificent sight could be imagined than a cañon-side covered with a mass of these red and gold blossoms nodding on their tall stems. The plants often grow in clumps and colonies of several hundred, and are always found in the rich soil of stream-banks or of wet, springy places. Most of us have been familiar with these spotted beauties from our childhood, with their delicately swinging anthers full of cinnamon-colored pollen.

A friend writing us from near Mt. Shasta, one July, said: "I wish you could have seen the _grove_ of tiger-lilies we saw near the place where we rested and lunched. They sprang from a velvet bed of mosses and ferns, under the shadow of a great rock, that towered at least a hundred feet above them. Out of the rock sprang two streams of living water, ice-cold, which crossed the trail and dashed over a rock below. Upon one plant we counted twenty-five buds and blossoms, while a friend counted thirty-two upon another."

Under extraordinarily favorable conditions, this lily has been known to reach a height of ten feet.

YELLOW POND-LILY.

_Nuphar polysepalum_, Engelm. Water-Lily Family.

_Leaves._--Six to twelve inches long; three fourths as wide; obtuse; deeply cleft at base; floating or erect. _Flowers._--Floating; three to five inches across. _Sepals._--Eight to twelve; petaloid; bright yellow, sometimes greenish without. _Petals._--Twelve to eighteen; small; about equaling the stamens, and resembling them. _Stamens._--Numerous; red; recurved in age; pollen yellow. _Ovary._--Large; eight- to twenty-celled. Stigma button-shaped; many-rayed; four lines to an inch across. _Hab._--From Colorado to Central California, and northward to Alaska.

Most of us are familiar with the yellow water-lily, and have seen its pretty shield-shaped leaves floating upon the surface of some glassy pond, starred with its large, golden flowers. The latter are sometimes five inches across and quite showy. Sometimes entire marshes are covered with the plants. The large seeds are very nutritious, and form an important article of diet among the northern Indians.

HUMBOLDT'S LILY. TIGER-LILY.

_Lilium Humboldtii_, Roezl and Leichtlin. Lily Family.

_Bulbs._--Large; often weighing over a pound; with scales two or three inches long. _Stems._--Stout; purplish; three or four feet high; eight- or ten-flowered, or more. _Leaves._--Wavy-margined; roughish; _Flowers._--Large; six to eight inches in diameter; golden yellow; spotted with pale purple, turning to red or brown. _Segments._--Having papillose prominences near the base. (Otherwise like _L. pardalinum_.) _Hab._--The foothills of the Sierras; southward to San Diego.

This wonderful lily, at first glance, resembles the common leopard- or tiger-lily--_L. pardalinum_--and it is found sometimes in the same regions as the latter, but never in the same kind of localities. It affects the loose soil of dry, upland woods, but never grows in wet or boggy places. Its flowers are larger than those of _L. pardalinum_, and have more of a golden hue and less of red in them.

By July this lily is in full bloom and a magnificent sight. A plant was once known which had fifty buds and blossoms, thirty of which were open at once!

COMMON SUNFLOWER.

_Helianthus annuus_, L. Composite Family.

Hispid, coarse plants. _Stems._--Several feet high. _Leaves._--Mostly alternate; petioled; deltoid-ovate to ovate-lanceolate; acuminate; three to seven inches long; three-ribbed at base. _Flower-heads._--Large; three or four inches across, including the rays; solitary; composed of yellow ray-flowers and purple-brown, tubular disk-flowers. _Involucre._--Of several series of imbricated, ovate, acuminate scales. _Disk._--An inch or so across. _Hab._--Throughout California.

The stately form of the sunflower is a common sight in the south, where whole fields are often covered with the plants. Their season of blossoming is supposed to be in the autumn, but we have seen them blooming just as gayly in March. This wild sunflower of the plains is believed to be the original parent of the large sunflower of our gardens.

Its seeds are used by the Indians as food and in the preparation of hair-oil.

Popular tradition makes this blossom a worshiper of the sun, and it is believed to follow him with admiring glances.

"The lofty follower of the sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her hollow leaves, Drooping all night, and when he warm returns, Points her enamored bosom to his ray."

Another species--_H. Californicus_, DC.--found from San Francisco Bay southward, along streams, has something the same habit as the above, but may be known from it by its slender, smooth stems, leafy to the top, the long, sprawling, awl-shaped bracts of its involucre, and its more delicate flowers, about two and a half inches across. The disk-corollas are slightly pubescent below. This species has a rather strong balsamic odor.

PINE-DROPS.

_Pterospora andromedea_, Nutt. Heath Family.

_Stems._--One to three feet high. _Bracts._--Crowded at base; scattered above. _Calyx._--Five-parted. _Corolla._--Three lines long; yellowish. _Stamens._--Ten. Anthers tailed; opening lengthwise. _Ovary._--Five-celled. Style short. Stigma five-lobed. _Hab._--Throughout California, and across the continent.

In our walks in the mountains, we occasionally encounter the flesh-colored wands of this curious plant. The colorless leaves are reduced to mere bracts, and the stems are densely clothed above with the little yellowish waxen bells. The whole plant is very viscid and disagreeable to handle.

Though rare, it is found all across the continent. In the East it grows only under pine-trees, upon whose roots it is supposed to be parasitic, while in California it is said to be found under both oaks and pines.

There is but a single species in this genus. The seed is furnished with a broad membranous wing, which has given rise to the name _Pterospora_, derived from two Greek words, meaning _wing_ and _seed_.

TARWEED.

_Hemizonia luzulaefolia_, DC. Composite Family.

Glandular, strong-scented plants. _Stems._--Loosely branching; slender; six inches to two feet high. _Leaves._--Linear; very small above; elongated and withering early below. _Flower-heads._--White or light yellow; composed of ray- and disk-flowers. _Rays._--Six to ten; two to five lines long; three-lobed. _Scales._--of the involucre each clasping a ray. _Hab._--Common throughout the western part of the State.