Part 5

Smooth, succulent herbs. _Radical Leaves._--Long-petioled; broadly rhomboidal. _Stems._--Simple; six to twelve inches high, having, near the summit, a pair of leaves united around the stem. _Flowers._--White. _Sepals._--Two. _Petals._--Five, minute. _Stamens._--Five. _Ovary._--One-celled Style slender. Stigma three-cleft. _Syn._--_Claytonia perfoliata_, Don. _Hab._--Throughout California.

Though our Indian lettuce is closely allied to the Eastern "Spring Beauty," one would never suspect it from its outward appearance and habit. The little flower-racemes look as though they might have pushed their way right through the rather large saucer-like leaf just below them. The succulent leaves and stems are greedily eaten by the Indians, from which it is called "Indian lettuce."

Mr. Powers, of Sheridan, writes that the Placer County Indians have a novel way of preparing their salad. Gathering the stems and leaves, they lay them about the entrances of the nests of certain large red ants. These, swarming out, run all over it. After a time the Indians shake them off, satisfied that the lettuce has a pleasant sour taste equaling that imparted by vinegar. These little plants are said to be excellent when boiled and well seasoned, and they have long been grown in England, where they are highly esteemed for salads.

WOOD ANEMONE. WIND-FLOWER.

_Anemone quinquefolia_, L. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.

_Rootstock._--Horizontal. _Stem._--Six to fourteen inches high. _Leaves._--Radical leaf remote from the stem; trifid; the segments serrate. Involucral leaf not far below the flower; three foliolate. _Sepals._--Petaloid; five or six; usually bluish outside. _Petals._--Wanting. _Stamens and Pistils._--Numerous. _Akenes._--Two lines long; twelve to twenty. _Syn._--_Anemone nemorosa_, L. _Hab._--The Coast Ranges, in moist shade.

The delicate blossoms of the wood anemone might at first be confounded with those of the toothwort by the careless observer, but a moment's reflection will quickly distinguish them. The anemone is always a solitary flower with many stamens, and its petals are of a more delicate texture. It grows upon wooded banks or cool, shaded flats among the redwoods.

There are many quaint traditions as to the origin of its name, and poets have from early times found something ideal of which to sing in these simple spring flowers.

The generic name has the accent upon the third syllable, but, when Anglicized into the common name, the accent falls back upon the second.

OSO-BERRY.

_Nuttallia cerasiformis_, Torr. and Gray. Rose Family

Deciduous shrubs; two to fifteen feet high. _Leaves._--Broadly oblanceolate; two to four inches long; narrowed into a short petiole. _Flowers._--White; in short terminal racemes; dioecious; three to eleven lines across. _Calyx._--Top-shaped, with five-lobed border. _Petals._--Five; inserted with ten of the stamens on the calyx; broadly spatulate. _Stamens._--Fifteen. _Ovaries._--Five. Styles short. _Fruit._--Blue-black, oblong drupes; six to eight lines long. _Hab._--Chiefly the Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo to Fraser River.

About the same time that the beautiful leaves of the buckeye are emerging from their wrappings, we notice in the woods a shrub which has just put forth its clusters of bright-green leaves from buds all along its slender twigs. Amid their delicate green hang short clusters of greenish-white flowers. These blossoms have a delicious bitter fragrance, redolent of all the tender memories of the springtime.

This shrub is usually mistaken for a wild plum; and the illusion is still further assisted when the little drupes, like miniature plums, begin to ripen and hang in yellow and purple clusters amid the matured leaves.

WILD DATE. SPANISH BAYONET.

_Yucca Mohavensis_, Sargent. Lily Family.

_Trunk._--Usually simple; rarely exceeding fifteen feet high; six or eight inches in diameter; naked, or covered with refracted dead leaves, or clothed to the ground with the living leaves. _Leaves._--Linear-lanceolate; one to three feet long; one or two inches wide; rigid; margins at length bearing coarse recurved threads. _Flowers._--In short-stemmed or sessile, distaff-shaped panicles, a foot or two long; pedicels eventually drooping, twelve to eighteen lines long. _Perianth._--Broadly campanulate. _Segments._--Six; thirty lines long; six to twelve wide. _Stamens._--Six; six to nine lines long; filaments white, club-shaped. _Ovary._--Oblong; white; an inch or two long, including the slender style. Stigmas three. _Fruit._--Cylindrical; three or four inches long; pendulous, pulpy. _Syn._--_Yucca baccata_, Torr. _Hab._--Southern California, from Monterey to San Diego; coast and inland.

The genus _Yucca_ comprises sixteen or eighteen species, and reaches its greatest development in Northern Mexico. Three species are to be found within our borders, two of which are arborescent, _Y. arborescens_, and _Y. Mohavensis_. Considerable confusion has hitherto reigned among the species, but they are now better understood.

They are all valuable to our Indians as basket and textile plants, and are useful to them in many other ways.

Owing to the structure of the flowers, self-fertilization seems impossible, and scientists who have made a study of the subject say that these plants are dependent upon a little white, night-flying moth to perform this office for them. This little creature goes from plant to plant, gathering the pollen, which she rolls up into a ball with her feet. When sufficient has been gathered, she goes to another plant, lays her egg in its ovary, and before leaving ascends to the stigma and actually pushes the pollen into it, seeming to realize that unless she performs this last act, there will be nothing for her progeny to eat. This seems an almost incredible instance of insect intelligence; but it is a well-authenticated fact.

_Yucca Mohavensis_, commonly called "wild date," or "Spanish bayonet," is more widely distributed within our borders than either of our other species. Its large panicle of overpoweringly fragrant white waxen bells is a striking object wherever seen. On the coast this yucca is often stemless, but in the interior, where it is more abundant, it rises to a considerable height, and culminates upon the Mojave Desert, where the finest specimens are found.

The fruit, which ripens in August and September, turns from green to a tawny yellow, afterward becoming brownish purple, and eventually almost black. This has a sweet, succulent flesh, and, either fresh or dried, is a favorite fruit among the Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that this is one of the most useful plants to the Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. They cut the stems into slices, beat them into a pulp, and mix them with the water in washing, as a substitute for soap.

The leaves are parched in ashes, to make them pliable, and are afterward soaked in water and pounded with a wooden mallet. The fibers thus liberated are long, strong, and durable, and lend themselves admirably to the weaving of the gayly decorated horse-blankets made by the tribes of Southern California. They also make from it ropes, twine, nets, hats, hair-brushes, shoes, mattresses, baskets, etc.

FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL.

_Smilacina sessilifolia_, Nutt. Lily Family.

_Rootstock._--Slender; branching; creeping; scars not conspicuous. _Stem._--About a foot long (sometimes two); usually zigzag above; leafy. _Leaves._--Alternate; sessile; lanceolate; two to six inches long; shining above; spreading in a horizontal plane. _Flowers._--White; few; in a simple terminal raceme, on pedicels two to seven lines long. _Perianth._--Of six, distinct, spreading segments. _Segments._--One and one half to four lines long; lanceolate. _Stamens._--Six; half the length of the segments. _Ovary._--Three-celled. Style short. _Berry._--Nearly black; three to five lines through. _Hab._--Monterey to British Columbia.

The False Solomon's Seal is one of the prettiest plants in our woods in March, and in many places it almost hides the ground from view. It has a graceful, drooping habit that shows its handsome, spreading leaves to full advantage, and its few delicate little white blossoms are a fitting termination to the pretty sprays.

_S. amplexicaulis_, Nutt., is a very handsome, decorative plant, with fine, tall, leafy stem, and large, feathery panicle of tiny white flowers. The broadened white filaments are the most conspicuous part of these blossoms, which are less than a line long. The berries are light-colored, dotted with red or purple.

MIST-MAIDENS.

_Romanzoffia Sitchensis_, Bongard. Baby-eyes or Water leaf Family.

_Leaves._--Six to eighteen lines across; smooth. _Flowers._--White, pink, or purple. _Calyx._--Deeply five-parted. _Corolla._--Funnel-form; five-lobed; four lines long. _Stamens._--Five. _Ovary._--Two-celled. _Hab._--Coast Ranges, from Santa Cruz northward.

In appearance these delicate herbs resemble the saxifrages, and they affect much the same sort of places, decking mossy banks and stream borders with their beautiful scalloped leaves and small white flowers.

The genus was named in honor of Nicholas Romanzoff, a Russian nobleman, who, by his munificence, enabled some noted botanists to visit this coast early in the century.

STRAWBERRY CACTUS. CALIFORNIAN FISH-HOOK CACTUS. LLAVINA.

_Mamillaria Goodridgii_, Scheer. Cactus Family.

Oval, fleshy, leafless plants; mostly single, though sometimes clustered; three to five inches long; covered with prominences or tubercles. _Tubercles._--Each bearing a flat rosette of short, whitish spines, with an erect, dark, fish-hook-like central one. _Flowers._--Small; greenish-white. _Outer Sepals._--Fringed. _Petals._--About eight; awned. _Stamens._--Numerous. _Ovary._--One-celled. Stigmas five or six. _Fruit._--Scarlet; an inch long. _Hab._--San Diego and neighboring islands, and southward.

The dry hill-slopes about San Diego afford the most interesting field accessible to civilization, _i.e._ within our boundaries, for the gathering and study of the cacti.

Nestling close to the ground, usually under some shrub or vine, you will find the little fish-hook cactus, one of the prettiest and most interesting of them all. Its oval form bristles with the little dark hooks, each of which emanates from a flat star of whitish spines.

The flowers may be found in April or May, but it is more noticeable when in fruit. The handsome scarlet berries, like old-fashioned coral eardrops, protruding from among the thorns, are easily picked out, and they very naturally find their way to one's mouth. Nor is one disappointed in the expectation raised by their brilliant exterior--for the flavor is delicious, though I cannot say it resembles that of the strawberry, as some aver. To me it is more like a fine tart apple.

THIMBLE-BERRY.

_Rubus Nutkanus_, Mocino. Rose Family.

_Stems._--Three to eight feet high. _Leaves._--Palmately and nearly equally five-lobed; cordate at base; four to twelve inches broad; the lobes acute; densely tomentose beneath. _Flowers._--Few; clustered; white, sometimes pale rose; an inch or two across, with rounded petals. _Stamens and Pistils._--Numerous. _Fruit._--Large; red; "like an inverted saucer;" sweet and rather dry. _Hab._--Monterey to Alaska.

The thimble-berry is unequaled for the canopy of pure light-green foliage which it spreads in our woods. It would take the clearest of water-colors to portray its color and texture. The large white flowers, with their crumpled petals, are deliciously fragrant, but with us are never followed by an edible fruit, probably owing to the dryness of our summer climate. In Oregon and northward the berries are said to be luscious. There the bushes grow in the fir forests, where they seem most at home.

_Rubus spectabilis_, Pursh., the salmon-berry, has leaves with three leaflets, and large solitary, rose-colored flowers, which are followed by a salmon-colored berry. These shrubs are exceedingly beautiful when in full bloom.

COMMON WILD PEA.

_Lathyrus vestitus_, Nutt. Pea Family.

_Stems._--One to ten feet high; slender; not winged. _Leaves._--Alternate; with small semi-sagittate stipules; pinnate, with four to six pairs of leaflets; tendril-bearing at the summit. _Leaflets._--Ovate-oblong to linear; six to twelve lines long; acute. _Flowers._--White, pale rose or violet; seven to ten lines long. _Lower Calyx-teeth._--About equaling the tube. _Corolla._--Papilionaceous; the standard veined with purple in the center. _Stamens._--Nine united; one free. _Ovary._--Flattened; pubescent. Style hairy down the inner side. (See _Leguminosae_.) _Hab._--Sonoma County to San Diego.

The genus _Lathyrus_, which contains the beautiful sweet pea of the garden, affords us several handsome wild species, but most of them are difficult of determination, and many of them are as yet much confused. This genus is quite closely related to _Vicia_, but, in general, the leaflets are broader, the flowers are larger, and the style is hairy down the inner side as well as at the tip.

_Lathyrus vestitus_ is the common wild pea of the south. It is quite plentiful, and clambers over and under shrubs, hanging out its occasional clusters of rather large pale flowers.

_L. Torreyi_, Gray, found from Santa Clara County to Napa in dry woods, is a slender plant, having from one to three small white or pinkish flowers. It is remarkable for and easily distinguished by its very fragrant foliage.

WILD CUCUMBER. BIG-ROOT. CHILICOTHE.

_Echinocystis fabacea_, Naudin. Gourd Family.

Tendril-bearing vines, ten to thirty feet long. _Root._--Enormous; woody. _Leaves._--Palmately five- to seven-lobed; three to six inches broad. _Flowers._--Yellowish white; monoecious. _Calyx-tube._--Campanulate; teeth small or none. _Corolla._--Five- to seven-lobed; three to six lines across. _Staminate Flowers._--Five to twenty in racemes; their stamens two and a half, with short connate filaments and somewhat horizontal anthers. _Pistillate Flowers._--Solitary; from the same axils as the racemes. _Ovary._--Two- to four-celled. _Fruit._--Two inches long; prickly. _Syn._--_Megarrhiza Californica_, Torr. _Hab._--Near the coast, from San Diego to Point Reyes.

The wild cucumber is one of our most graceful native vines. It drapes many an unsightly stump, or clambers up into shrubs, embowering them with its pretty foliage. Seeing its rather delicate ivy-like habit above ground, one would never dream that it came from a root as large as a man's body, buried deep in the earth. From this root, it has received two of its common names, "big-root" and "man-in-the-ground." Sometimes this may be seen upon the ocean beach or rolling about in the breakers, where it has been liberated by the wearing away of the cliffs. It is intensely bitter.

The seeds have a very interesting method of germinating. The two large radical leaves remain underground, sending up the terminal shoot only. They are so tender and succulent that they would be eaten forthwith, if they showed themselves above the ground. An oil expressed from the roasted seeds has been used by the Indians to promote the growth of the hair.

Authorities have differed about the classification of these plants, and they have been variously called _Megarrhiza, Micrampelis_, and _Echinocystis_, the latter being latest approved. We have several species. One common in the South is _E. macrocarpa_, Greene. This has a large oval, prickly ball, four inches or so long. When mature, this opens at the top, splitting into several segments, which gradually roll downward, like the petals of a beautiful white lily, showing their pure-white inner surfaces and leaving exposed the four cells in the center, with lacelike walls, in which nestle the large, handsome dark seeds. These seeds are often beautifully mottled and colored, and in the early days served the Spanish-Californian children for marbles.

WHITE LAYIA. WHITE DAISY.

_Layia glandulosa_, Hook. and Arn. Composite Family.

_Stems._--Six to twelve inches high; loosely branching; hairy; often reddish. _Leaves._--Sessile; linear; the upper all small and entire; the lower often lanceolate and incised pinnatifid. _Heads._--Usually large and showy. _Ray-flowers._--Bright, pure white, sometimes rose-color; eight to thirteen; three-lobed; an inch or less long; six lines wide. _Disk-flowers._--Golden yellow; five-toothed. Each scale of the involucre clasping a ray-flower. _Hab._--Columbia River to Los Angeles.

These white daisies, as they are commonly called in the south, cover the fields and plains in early spring, jostling one another in friendly proximity and stretching away in an endless perspective. They are of a charming purity, and to me are more attractive than their sisters, the tidy-tips.

They love a sandy soil, and I have seen them flourishing in the disintegrated granite of old river-beds, where the dazzling whiteness of the stones was hardly distinguishable from the blossoms. The involucre is thickly studded with curious little glands, resembling small glass-headed pins.

BED-STRAW. GOOSE-GRASS. CLEAVERS.

_Galium Aparine_, L. Madder Family.

Climbing by the prickly stem-angles and leaf-margins. _Stems._--Weak; one to four feet long. _Leaves._--In whorls of six to eight; linear oblanceolate; one inch long. _Peduncles._--Elongated; one- to two-flowered. _Flowers._--Minute; one line across; greenish-white. _Calyx-tube._--Adnate to the ovary; limb obsolete. _Corolla._--Mostly four-cleft. _Stamens._--Four. _Ovary._--Two-lobed, two-celled. Styles two, short. Stigmas, capitate. _Fruit._--Two or three lines across, covered with hooked bristles. _Hab._--Throughout the State.

All through our moist woodlands, in early spring, the long stems of the bed-straw may be found, running about upon the ground or entangled amid the stems of other plants. The angles of these weak stems and the leaf-margins and midribs are all clothed with small backward-pointing bristles, which make the plants cling to surrounding objects. The flowers are greenish and minute, and are followed by tiny prickly balls.

A cold infusion of this little plant is used as a domestic remedy in cases of fever, where a cooling drink is desired.

The genus has received the common name of "bed-straw," because it was supposed that one of the species, _G. verum_, filled the manger in which was laid the Infant Jesus. There are a dozen or so species in California.

Very conspicuous all through the south is _G. angustifolium_, Nutt., often three feet high, sending up very numerous slender, feathery stems from a woody base. This has its small leaves in whorls of four.

MOUNTAIN HEART'S-EASE.

_Viola Beckwithii_, Torr. and Gray. Violet Family.

_Leaves._--Broadly cordate in outline; three-parted; the divisions cleft into linear or oblong segments. _Peduncles._--About equaling the leaves. _Petals._--Four to seven lines long; very broad; the upper deep purple, the others lilac, bluish, or white, veined with purple, with a yellowish base; the lateral bearded; the lowest emarginate. _Stigma._--Bearded at the sides. _Capsule._--Obtuse. (Otherwise as _V. pedunculata_.) _Hab._--The Central Sierras.

"By scattered rocks and turbid waters shifting, By furrowed glade and dell, To feverish men thy calm, sweet face uplifting, Thou stayest them to tell

"The delicate thought that cannot find expression-- For ruder speech too fair,-- That, like thy petals, trembles in possession, And scatters on the air."

The poet, with a delicate insight, has made this mountain flower the reminder to the rugged miner of home and scenes far away. But the vision lasts but for a moment only; then, as he brushes away a tear, his uplifted pick--

"Through root and fiber cleaves-- And on the muddy current slowly drifting Are swept thy bruised leaves.

"And yet, O poet! in thy homely fashion, Thy work thou dost fulfill; For on the turbid current of his passion Thy face is shining still."

POP-CORN FLOWER.

WHITE FORGET-ME-NOT. NIEVITAS.

Borage Family.

The wild white forget-me-nots are among our most welcome flowers. Though not showy, taken singly, they often cover the fields, presenting the appearance of a light snowfall, from which fact the Spanish-Californians have bestowed the pretty name "nievitas," the diminutive of _nieve_, snow.

Their chief charm often lies in their pure, delightful fragrance, which recalls the days of our careless, happy childhood. Children are keen observers of flowers, and are among their most appreciative lovers, and with them these modest, chaste little blossoms are special favorites.

There are many species, and even genera, and their determination is beset with serious difficulties. It requires endless study and patience to disentangle the facts about any one of them. They are comprised under several genera, _Krynitzkia_, _Plagiobothrys_, _Eritrichium_, _Piptocalyx_, etc. Some have fragrant flowers and some have not. Children of the south call them "pop-corn flowers."

WHIPPLEA.

_Whipplea modesta_, Torr. Saxifrage Family.

Slender, diffuse, hairy undershrubs. _Leaves._--Opposite; short-petioled; ovate; toothed or entire; an inch or less long; three-nerved. _Flowers._--White; barely three lines across; in small terminal clusters. _Calyx._--White; five-cleft. _Petals._--Five. _Stamens._--Usually ten. Filaments awl-shaped. _Ovary._--Three- to five-celled, globose. Styles of the same number. _Hab._--Coast Ranges from Monterey to Mendocino County.

Under the redwoods, or in moist cañons in their vicinity, may be found this pretty undershrub trailing over banks or brushwood. In April its exquisite little clusters of pure white flowers, with a pleasant fragrance, make their appearance, and the plants have then been sometimes mistaken for a species of _Ceanothus_.

WOODLAND STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

_Tellima affinis_, Bolander. Saxifrage Family.

_Stems._--Slender; six to twenty inches high. _Root-leaves._--Round-reniform; scalloped; rarely an inch across. _Stem-leaves._--Three to five; ternately cleft; variously toothed. _Flowers._--White; in a loose raceme; nine lines across. _Calyx._--Small; campanulate; five-toothed. _Petals._--Five; wedge-shaped, with three acute lobes. _Stamens._--Ten. Filaments very short. _Ovary._--One-celled. Styles, three, short, stout. Stigmas, capitate. _Hab._--Shady places almost throughout the State.

"Star of Bethlehem" is the common name by which many of our children know this fragile flower. Its slender stems rise from many a mossy bank, upbearing their few delicately slashed, pure-white stars, which seem to shed a gentle radiance about them upon the woodland scene.

WILD BUCKWHEAT.

_Eriogonum fasciculatum_, Bentham. Buckwheat Family.