Part 24

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

In early summer the fragrant spikes of the rein-orchis stand half-concealed under the trees and along the banks bordering wooded mountain roads. The little greenish flowers are inconspicuous, and reveal themselves only to those who have the habit of observation. Early in the spring the rather large lily-like leaves were far more noticeable and handsome; but they seemed to weary of waiting for the tardy arrival of the blossoms, and faded away long since. The little flowers are very deliberate about unfolding themselves; and I have sometimes watched them when they seemed for weeks at a standstill before yielding to the summer's invitation to come forth.

They are arranged in a three-sided spike, on two sides of which the long spurs interlace and cross one another in quite a warlike manner.

TEASEL. FULLER'S THISTLE.

_Dipsacus Fullonum_, L. Teasel Family.

The teasel is not an uncommon sight along our roadsides, having spread considerably since its introduction from Europe, some years ago. The strong stems are tall and slender, and bear at summit the large bristly cones, surrounded by rigid, erect bracts. These cones are the inflorescence of the plant, and each downward-pointing little hook is a bract beneath a flower. Before the flowers come out, the buds show their round, green heads, packed away down among the bristles. Then for a time the cones are ringed or covered by the delicate flesh-colored flowers; which stand out from the bristles, giving the cone a soft, fluffy look. After these have passed away, the cavities in which they were stored give the cone a pitted appearance. These burs are exquisitely symmetrical, and have long been in use by the fuller to "tease," or raise a nap upon cloth, whence the name, "teasel." They are cut in halves or quarters, and these are set in frames which are worked by machinery. Many vain attempts have been made to manufacture an instrument to take the place of the teasel; but it is difficult to find anything that is strong enough to do the work that at the same time will not injure the cloth.

This is enumerated among the plants which are supposed to foretell the weather. Mr. Dyer quotes the following:--

... "tezils, or fuller's thistle, being gathered and hanged up in the house where the air may come freely to it, upon the alteration of cold and windy weather will grow smoother, and against rain will close up its prickles."

SAMPHIRE. GLASSWORT.

_Salicornia ambigua_, Michx. Goosefoot Family.

_Hab._--The Coast, from San Francisco to Oregon.

Ye marshes, how candid and simple, and nothing withholding and free, Ye publish yourselves to the sky, and offer yourselves to the sea; Tolerant plains that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, Ye spread and span, like the catholic man who hath mightily won God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain.

--SIDNEY LANIER.

Though a humble enough plant in itself, the samphire, or glasswort, is the source of a wonderful glory in our marshes in the autumn. Great stretches of tide-land not already pre-empted by the tule are covered by it, showing the most gorgeous blendings of crimson, purple, olives, and bronzes, which, seen with all the added charm of shifting and changing atmospheric effects, far outrival any Oriental rug that could be conceived of.

This plant is easily known by its succulent branching, leafless stems and from the fact that it does not grow outside of the salt marshes. Its flowering is obscure, and all that can be seen is a few small stamens just protruding from the surface of the fleshy spike, which appears much like any of the other branches, the flowers being sunk in it.

The generic name is derived from two Latin words--_sal_, salt, and _cornu_, a horn--and conveys the idea of saline plants with hornlike branches. The English name, "samphire," is of French derivation, and comes originally from the old "l'herbe de Saint Pierre," formerly having been written "sampêtra" and "sampire." In Great Britain this plant is usually designated as "_marsh_ samphire," to distinguish it from the ordinary samphire, which is a plant of the genus _Crithmum_.

This plant is much relished by cattle, and in England it is made into a pickle, while on the continent it is used as a pot-herb. Formerly, in Europe, it was burned in large quantities for the soda contained in its ashes.

MOTTLED SWAMP-ORCHIS. FALSE LADY'S SLIPPER.

_Epipactis gigantea_, Dougl. Orchis Family.

_Rootstock._--Creeping. _Stems._--Leafy; one to four feet high. _Leaves._--Alternate; sessile; clasping; ovate below; lanceolate above; three to eight inches long. _Flowers._--Three to ten; in terminal racemes; greenish, veined with purple. _Sepals._--Three; petaloid; lanceolate; an inch or less long. _Petals._--The two upper about equaling the sepals. The lip concave; saccate; eared at base; with a jointed, pendulous tip. _Anther._--One; sessile upon the top of the column. _Ovary._--One-celled. _Hab._--Throughout California.

The casual observer usually alludes to this plant as a "lady's slipper," and he is not so very far wrong, for it is closely related to the _Cypripedium_, and resembles it much in habit, in the aspect of its leafy stems, and in the general form of its blossom. But instead of having its lip in the form of a sac, it is open and curiously jointed, the lower portion swinging freely, as upon a hinge. When this lid is raised, one can fancy some winged seraph or angel enshrined within, but when lowered the semblance is more to a monk bowed in meditation.

These beautiful plants will be found abundantly fringing our streams in June and July, and the disciples of dear old Isaac Walton who then pass down the stream with rod and line are usually attracted by their quietly elegant colors. Dull purples and greens predominate, though the lip is tinged with orange or yellow.

In Northern California and Oregon is occasionally found a rare and curious plant--the "phantom orchis," _Cephalanthera Oregana_, Richenb.f. This plant is white and ghostlike throughout, has stems a foot or two high, but no leaves--only three to five scarious sheathing bracts. Its blossoms are very similar in size and shape to those of _Epipactis gigantea_.

I have never had the pleasure of finding this floral oddity myself; but one season a friend sent me the only plant which was found in a thicket near a pretty camp upon the Sacramento River, in the Shasta region.

CALIFORNIAN PITCHER-PLANT. CALF'S-HEAD.

_Darlingtonia Californica_, Torr. Pitcher-plant Family.