Part 23

_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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Woody plants, more or less villous. _Stems._--Much branched; ascending or 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.

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.

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.