EVENING SNOW.

WHITE EVENING PRIMROSE—Œnothera Californica.

Six inches to a foot high; erect; sparsely leaved.Leaves.—Opposite; mostly entire; filiform.Flowers.—Nearly sessile in the forks, or terminal.Calyx.—With cylindric tube five lines long; wholly white, scarious, except the five filiform green ribs, continued into needle-like lobes.Corolla.—White; an inch or two across. Anthers linear.Hab.—Throughout the western part of the State.

This is one of the most showy of our gilias. Miss Eastwood writes of it: "At about four o'clock in the afternoonGilia dichotomabegins to whiten the hillside. Before expansion the flowers are hardly noticeable; the dull pink of the edges, which are not covered in the convolute corolla, hides their identity and makes the change which takes place when they unveil their radiant faces to the setting sun the more startling. They intend to watch all night and by sunset all are awake. In the morning they roll up their petals again when daylight comes on, and when the sun is well up all are asleep, tired out with the vigil of the night. The odor is most sickening.... The same flower opens several times, and grows larger as it grows older."

Stems.—Nearly erect; six to twelve inches high.Leaves.—Cordate; acutish; conspicuously crenate.Petals.—Five to seven lines long; the upper white within, deep brown-purple without; the others white or yellowish, veined with purple; the lateral with a purple spot near the base and slightly bearded on the claw. (Flower structure as inV. pedunculata.)Hab.—Wooded districts from Monterey to Mendocino County.

This dainty little heart's-ease has nothing of the gay, joyous, self-assertive look of our yellow pansy, but rather the shy, timid mien belonging to all the creatures of the woodland. It ventures its pretty blossoms in late spring and early summer.

Procumbent, succulent plants, covered with minute, elongated, glistening papillæ.Leaves.—Flat; ovate or spatulate; undulate-margined; clasping.Flowers.—White or rose-colored; axillary; nearly sessile; rather small.Calyx.—With campanulate tube and usually five unequal lobes.Petals.—Linear; numerous.Stamens.—Numerous.Ovary.—Two- to many-celled. Stigmas five.Hab.—The Coast and adjacent islands from Santa Barbara southward; also in the Mojave Desert.

The ice-plant spreads its broad, green leaves over the ground, often making large rugs, which, when reddened by the approach of drouth and glistening with small crystals, produce a charming effect. The flat leaves of this plant are quite unexpectedly different from those of our other species ofMesembryanthemum, which are usually cylindrical or triangular. The leaf-stems and the calyx-tube, in particular, are beautifully jeweled with the clear, glasslike incrustation. The flesh-pink or almost white flowers resemble small sea-anemones, with their single row of tentacle-like petals and hollow tube powdered with the little white anthers.

The plant grows so abundantly in the fields of the southern seasides as to be a dreadful pest to the farmer, and it is very disagreeable to walk through, as it yields up the water of its crystals very readily, and this is said to be of an alkaline quality, which is ruinous to shoe-leather.

This ice-plant grows plentifully in the chalky regions of France, and has there been recommended for use as a food, to be prepared like spinach. It also grows in the Canary Islands.

Radical leaves.—Very numerous; two or three feet long; about two lines broad; gracefully flexile; serrulate.Scape.—Two to five feet high; with scattered leaves; bearing at top a dense raceme a foot or two long.Perianth segments.—Six; spreading rotately; four or five lines long; white.Stamens.—Six.Ovary.—Three-celled. Styles three; filiform.Hab.—Coast Ranges to British Columbia; also in the Northern Sierras.

Often upon high ridges we notice the large clumps ofcertain plants with long, slender, grasslike leaves, which ray out in every direction like a fountain, and resemble a small pampas-grass before it flowers. We naturally wonder what the plants are, but it may be many years before our curiosity is satisfied. Suddenly some spring we find them sending up tall blossom-shafts, crowned with great airy plumes of pure-white flowers, fully worthy of our long and patient waiting. After putting forth this supreme effort of a lifetime, and maturing its seed, the plant dies.

In the north, where it is sometimes very abundant, and occupies extensive meadows, it is known as "sour-grass." The name "squaw-grass" is also applied there, because the leaves, which are long, wiry, and tough, are used by the Indians in the weaving of some of their finest baskets. Baskets made from them are particularly pliable and durable.

Slender; seldom branching or more than six inches high. Herbage slightly reddish.Leaves.—Cleft into filiform divisions at the apex.Flowers.—Pure white, fading pinkish; very fragrant. Lower lip of the corolla with three very large sacs. Folds of the throat densely bearded. (SeeOrthocarpus.)Hab.—San Francisco and Marin County.

During the spring the meadows about San Francisco are luxuriantly covered with the pretty blossoms of the owl's clover, which make snowy patches in some places. Unlike the other species ofOrthocarpus, this has delightfully fragrant blossoms.

I do not know why this plant should be accredited to the owl and called clover, unless the quizzical-looking little blossoms are suggestive of the wise bird. But with all his wisdom, I doubt if he would recognize his clover.

WHITE OWL'S CLOVER—Orthocarpus versicolor.

Stem.—One or two feet high; branching.Flowers.—White.Sepals.—Lanceolate.Petals.—Twelve to fifteen lines long; pearly white, sometimes lavender-tinged outside; covered within with long, silky white hairs.Gland.—Shallow crescent-shaped, with four transverse scales fringed with short glandular hairs. (SeeCalochortus.)Hab.—Coast Ranges and Sierras, San Diego to Tehama County.

Just before the oncoming of summer, our wooded hill-slopes and cañon-sides entertain one of the most charming of flowers; for the graceful stalks of the hairbell begin to hang out their delicate, white satin globes. Never was flower more exquisite in texture and fringing—never one more graceful in habit. If fairies have need of lanterns at all, these blossoms would certainly make very dainty globes to hold their miniature lights.

Wherever they grow, these flowers win instant and enthusiastic admiration; and they have received a variety of common names in different localities, being known as "snowy lily-bell," "satin-bell," "hairbell," "lantern of the fairies," and "white globe-tulip."

Hab.—Southern California, and northward—at least to Stockton.

The large-flowered Datura is a common plant along southern roadsides, producing in early May its enormous white or violet-tinged funnels, which are sometimes ten inches long. It resembles the common Jamestown-weed, of which it is a near relative, but may be distinguished by its large flower and its cylindrical calyx, which is not angled. It shares with the Jamestown-weed its narcotic poisonous qualities, and is a famous plant among our Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that they bruise and boil the root in water, and when the infusion thus made is cold, they drink it to produce a stupefying effect. In a different degree they administer it to their young dancing womenas a powerful stimulant, and before going into battle the warriors take it to produce a martial frenzy in themselves.

HAIRBELL—Calochortus albus.

By the Piutes it is called "main-oph-weep." The specific name,meteloides, indicates the resemblance of this plant toDatura Metel, of India.

Eriodictyon glutinosum, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.Shrubby; three to five feet high.Leaves.—Thick; glutinous; smooth above; light beneath, with prominent net-veining; three to six inches long.Flowers.—Purple, violet, or white.Calyx.—Five-parted.Corolla.—Six lines long; four lines across.Stamens.—Five; alternate with the corolla-lobes.Ovary.—Two-celled. Styles two.Hab.—Western California; common on dry hills.

Eriodictyon glutinosum, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.

Shrubby; three to five feet high.Leaves.—Thick; glutinous; smooth above; light beneath, with prominent net-veining; three to six inches long.Flowers.—Purple, violet, or white.Calyx.—Five-parted.Corolla.—Six lines long; four lines across.Stamens.—Five; alternate with the corolla-lobes.Ovary.—Two-celled. Styles two.Hab.—Western California; common on dry hills.

The bitter, aromatic leaves of the yerba santa are a highly valued, domestic remedy for colds, and many old-fashioned people would not be without it.

Dr. Bard, one of our most eminent physicians, writes of this interesting little shrub: "It has been reserved for the Californian Indian to furnish three of the most valuable vegetable additions which have been made to the pharmacopœia during the last twenty years. One, theEriodictyon glutinosum, growing profusely in our foothills, was used by them in affections of the respiratory tract, and its worth was so appreciated by the missionaries that they named it yerba santa, or holy plant."

The other plants referred to by Dr. Bard are theRhamnus, orCascara sagrada, and theGrindelia. In the mountains of Mariposa County, it is known as "wild peach," probably because the leaf somewhat resembles the peach-leaf.

Dr. Behr writes that considerable quantities of it are exported, partly for medicinal purposes, and partly as a harmless and agreeable substitute for hops in the brewing of certain varieties of beer, especially porter.

In Ventura County this passes by insensible gradations intoE. tomentosum, Benth., and there it is difficult to distinguish clearly between the two species.

YERBA SANTA—Eriodictyon glutinosum.

E. tomentosum, Benth., is found from San Diego probablyto Santa Barbara. This comely shrub is so disguised in its woolly coat that one does not at first detect its close relationship to the more common yerba santa. Its broad, oval leaves, ribbed like the chestnut and closely notched, and its generous clusters of unusually large violet flowers, serve to bewilder us for the moment. The wool upon the foliage gives it a gray-green tone, harmonizing perfectly with the violet flowers. It is specially abundant all over the mesas by the seashore, near San Diego.

Rootstock.—Stout.Leaves.—All radical; two to four inches long. Scapes.—Often two feet high.Flowers.—White; minute; in loose panicles.Calyx.—Five-toothed; one or two lines long.Petals.—Five; one line long; on the sinuses of the calyx.Stamens.—Five.Ovary.—One-celled. Styles two.Hab.—Coast Ranges and Sierras from Monterey to British Columbia.

Upon almost any drive or walk along a shaded road, we may find the alum-root hanging over a mossy bank. Its large, airy panicle is composed of minute flowers, and appears in early summer. But it is more conspicuous for its exquisite foliage than for its flowers. The leaves are usually mottled in light green and richly veined in dark brown or red, and they often turn to a rich red later in the season.

The root is woody and astringent, to which latter fact the plant owes its English name, which it shares with the other members of the genus. These are very satisfactory plants to bring in from the woods, because they remain beautiful in water for many weeks.

ALUM-ROOT—Heuchera micrantha.

Shrubs two to twenty feet high, with gray, shreddy bark and reddish, slender branches.Leaves.—Two to four lines long; linear to awl-shaped; smooth; clustered. Stipules small; acute.Flowers.—White; two lines across; in terminal racemose panicles.Calyx.—Five-toothed; with bracts below resembling another calyx; tube ten-ribbed.Petals.—Five.Stamens.—Ten to fifteen; in clusters between the petals.Ovary.—One-celled.Fruit.—A dry akene.Hab.—Widely distributed.

The chamisal forms a large part of the chaparral of our mountain slopes, and when not in bloom gives to them much the aspect imparted to the Scotch Highlands by the heather. It is an evergreen shrub, with small clustered, needle-like leaves. In late spring it is covered with large, feathery panicles of tiny white blossoms, which show with particular effectiveness against the rich olive of its foliage, and furnish the bees with valuable honey material for a considerable season. When interspersed with shrubs of livelier greens, it gives to our hill-slopes and mountain-sides a wonderfully rich and varied character. In the summer of a season when it has flowered freely, the cinnamon-colored seed-vessels blending with the olives of the foliage lend a rich, warm bronze to whole hillsides, forming a charming contrast to the straw tints and russets of grassy slopes, and adding another to the many soft harmonies of our summer landscape. It is most abundant in the Coast Ranges, where, in some localities, it covers mile after mile of hill-slopes, with its close-cropped, uniform growth.

When the chaparral, or dense shrubby growth of our mountain-sides, is composed entirely ofAdenostoma, it is called chamisal.

Another species,A. sparsifolium, Torr., found in the south, and somewhat resembling the above, may be known from it by its lack of stipules, its scattered, not clustered leaves, which are obtuse and not pointed, and its somewhat larger flowers, each one pediceled.

This is commonly known among the Spanish-Californiansas "Yerba del Pasmo," literally the "herb of the convulsion," and among them and the Indians it is a sovereign remedy for many ailments, being considered excellent for colds, cramps, and snakebites, and an infallible cure for tetanus, or lockjaw. The foliage fried in grease becomes a healing ointment.

The bark of this species is reddish and hangs in shreds.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees; eight to thirty feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; holly-like; an inch or two long.Flowers.—White; three lines across; in racemes eighteen lines to three inches long.Calyx.—Five-cleft.Petals.—Five; spreading.Stamens.—Twelve to twenty-five.Ovary.—Solitary; one-celled. Style terminal.Fruit.—A dark red cherry, becoming black; six lines in diameter.Hab.—Coast Ranges, San Francisco into Lower California.

The holly-leaved cherry is a very ornamental shrub, with its shining, prickly evergreen leaves, and it is coming more and more into favor for cultivation, especially as a hedge-shrub. In its natural state it attains its greatest perfection in the mountains near Santa Barbara and southward. On dry hills it is only a shrub, but in the rich soil of cañon bottoms it becomes a tree. Some of the finest specimens are to be found in the gardens of the old missions, where they have been growing probably a century.

Dr. Behr tells us that the foliage, in withering, develops hydrocyanic acid, the odor of which is quite perceptible. The leaves are then poisonous to sheep and cattle.

The shrubs are especially beautiful in spring, after they have made their new growth of bright green at the ends of the branches, and put forth a profusion of feathery bloom. The blossoms have the pleasant, bitter fragrance of the cultivated cherry, and attract myriads of bees, who make the region vocal with their busy hum. The fruit, which ripens from September to December, is disappointing, owing to its very thin pulp, though its astringent and acid flavor is not unpleasant.

It was used by the aborigines as food, however, and madeinto an intoxicating drink by fermentation. The meat of the stones ground and made into balls constituted a delicate morsel with them.

Aromatic trailing vines.Stems.—Slender; one to four feet long.Leaves.—One inch long; round-ovate.Flowers.—Solitary; axillary; white or purplish.Calyx.—Five-toothed; two lines long.Corolla.—Five lines long; bilabiate.Stamens.—Four; in pairs on the corolla.Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma unevenly two-lipped.Hab.—Vancouver Island to Los Angeles County.

The yerba buena is as dear to the Californian as the Mayflower to the New Englander, and is as intimately associated with the early traditions of this Western land as is that delicate blossom with the stormy past of the Pilgrim Fathers. Its delicious, aromatic perfume seems in some subtle way to link those early days of the Padres with our own, and to call up visions of the long, low, rambling mission buildings of adobe, with their picturesque red-tiled roofs; the flocks and herds tended by gentle shepherds in cowls; and the angelus sounding from those quaint belfries, and vibrating in ever-widening circles over hill and vale.

Before the coming of the Mission Fathers, the Indians used this little herb, placing great faith in its medicinal virtues, so that the Padres afterward bestowed upon it the name of "yerba buena"—"the good herb." It is still used among our Spanish-Californians in the form of a tea, both as a pleasant beverage and as a febrifuge, and also as a remedy for indigestion and other disorders.

They designate this as "Yerba Buena del Campo"—i.e.the wild or field yerba buena,—to distinguish it from the "Yerba Buena del Poso"—"the herb of the well,"—which is the common garden-mint growing in damp places.

Aside from its associations and medicinal virtues, this is a charming little plant. In half-shaded woods its long, graceful stems make a trailing interlacement upon the ground and yield up their minty fragrance as we pass.

YERBA BUENA—Micromeria Douglasii.

Stems.—Numerous; two to fifteen feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; petioled; the lower pinnatifid; the upper pinnately cut into long narrow segments; glaucous; three to five inches long; smooth.Flowers.—Solitary; six to nine inches across.Sepals.—Three; strongly arched, covered with bristly appressed hairs; caducous.Petals.—Six; white.Stamens.—Very numerous. Filaments filiform; yellow, purple below.Ovary.—Seven- to eleven-celled. Stigmas several.Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The Matilija poppy (pronounced ma-til'li-ha) must be conceded the queen of all our flowers. It is not a plant for small gardens, but the fitting adornment of a large park, where it can have space and light and air to rear its imperial stems and shake out its great diaphanous flowers. It is one of the most wonderful of wild flowers, and it is difficult to believe that nature, without the aid of a careful gardener, should have produced such a miracle of loveliness. It is justly far-famed, and by English gardeners, who now grow it successfully, it is regarded as a priceless treasure, and people go from many miles around to see it when it blooms. It is to be regretted that our flowers must go abroad to find their warmest admirers.

This plant was named in honor of Dr. Romney Robinson, a famous astronomer. Its common name was given it because it grows in particular abundance in the Matilija Cañon, some miles above Ventura in the mountains. Many people have the mistaken idea that it grows only in that region. It is not common, by any means; but it is found in scattered localities from Santa Barbara southward into Mexico. It is very abundant near Riverside, and also upon the southern boundary and below in Lower California, where the plants cover large areas. It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion of remote cañons, and nothing more magnificent could be imagined than a steep cañon-side covered with the great bushy plants, thickly sown with the enormous white flowers.

MATILIJA POPPY—Romneya Coulteri.

The round buds (which, however, are sometimes pointed) are closely wrapped in three overlapping hairy sepals. Thesegradually open, and at dawn the buds unfurl their crumpled petals to the day, exhaling a pleasant fragrance. The blossoms remain open for many days.

These plants have long been in use among the Indians of Lower California, who esteem them highly for their medicinal qualities. The seeds require a long period for germination, and they have been known to come at the end of two years. The better method of propagation is from root-cuttings.

The plant has been called "Mission poppy" and "Giant Californian white poppy," but the pretty Indian name cannot be improved upon.

Shrubby, three to ten feet high; many-stemmed.Leaves.—Opposite; lanceolate; narrowing into a petiole; several inches long.Flowers.—White or pale lavender, in loose panicles a foot or two long.Calyx.—Tubular; bilabiate.Corolla.—About six lines long, with short tube and bilabiate border. Upper lip small; erect. Lower lip three-lobed; the middle lobe large.Stamens.—Two; jointed.Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style slender. Stigma two-cleft.Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The classic honey of Hymettus could not have been clearer or more wholesome than that distilled by the bees from the white sage of Southern California, which has become justly world-renowned. The plants cover extensive reaches of valley and hill-slopes, and are often called "greasewood."

Certain it is that the white stems have a very greasy, gummy feel and a rank, aggressive odor. In spring the long, coarse, sparsely leafy branches begin to rise from the woody base, often making the slopes silvery; and by May these have fully developed their loose, narrow panicles of pale flowers and yellowish buds.

The structure of these blossoms is very interesting. The long, prominent lower lip curves downward and upward and backward upon itself, like a swan's neck, while the two stamens rising from its surface lift themselves like two long horns, and the style curves downward.

A bee arriving at this flower naturally brushes against the stigma, leaving upon it some of the pollen gained from another flower. Then alighting upon the lower lip, his weight bends it downward, and he grasps the stamens as convenient handles, thus drawing the anthers toward his body, where the pollen is dusted upon his coat as he probes beneath the closed upper lip for the honey in the depths of the tube. The various sages of the south have a very interesting way of hybridizing.

Shrubs.—Four to eighteen feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; elliptic to oblong; denticulate or entire; leathery; one to four inches long; six to eighteen lines wide.Flowers.—Clustered; greenish white; small.Calyx.—Five-toothed.Petals.—Five; minute; on the sinuses of the calyx; each clasping a stamen.Ovary.—Two- to four-celled. Style short.Fruit.—Berry-like; black; four to six lines long; containing two or three nutlets, like coffee-beans.Hab.—Throughout California.

Long before the advent of the Spanish, the medicinal virtues of this shrub were known to the Indians, who used it as a remedy for rheumatism and, according to Dr. Bard, to correct the effects of an acorn diet. The Mission Fathers afterward came to appreciate its worth so highly that they bestowed upon it the nameCascara sagrada, or the "sacred bark." Since those early days the fame of it has spread the world around. No more valuable laxative is known to the medical world to-day, and every year great quantities of it are exported from our shores. Though the shrub is found as far south as San Diego, the bark is not gathered in any quantity south of Monterey, as it becomes too thin southward. The shrub goes under a variety of names, according to the locality in which it is found.

In Monterey County it is known as "yellow-boy" or "yellow-root," and in Sonoma County it becomes "pigeon-berry," because the berry is a favorite food of the wild pigeons, and lends to their flesh a bitter taste.

Some years ago quite an excitement prevailed in the Statewhen some visionary persons believed they had found a perfect substitute for coffee in the seeds of this shrub. To be sure, they do somewhat resemble the coffee-bean in form, but the resemblance goes no further; for upon a careful analysis they revealed none of the qualities of coffee, nor upon roasting did they exhale its aroma. After much discussion of the matter and the laying out in imagination of extensive, natural coffee-plantations upon our wild hill-slopes, these hopeful people were destined to see their project fall in ruins.

This shrub is very variable, according to the locality where it grows. Under shade, the leaves become herbaceous and ample, and as we go northward that becomes the prevailing type, and is then calledR. Purshiana, DC. It is then often very large, having a trunk the size of a man's body. In Oregon it is known as "chittemwood" and "bitter bark," and also as "wahoo" and "bear-wood." Thevar. tomentella, Brew. and Wats., is densely white-tomentose, especially on the under surfaces of the leaves.

Viscid-glandular under the loose hairs.Flower-heads.—In densely crowded, flattish clusters.Involucre.—Campanulate; of very numerous, scarious, yellowish-white, oval scales. (Otherwise similar toAnaphalis Margaritacea.)Hab.—From San Diego through Oregon.

The common everlasting flower, or cudweed, is plentiful upon our dry hills, blooming in early summer, where its white clusters are conspicuous objects amid the drying vegetation. In our rural districts it is believed that sleeping upon a pillow made of these flowers will cure catarrhal affections.

G. Sprengelii, Hook. and Arn., may be known from the above by its densely gray, woolly herbage, which is not glandular-viscid. It is also common throughout the State.

The beautiful edelweiss of the Alps is a species ofGnaphalium,G. leontopodium.

Shrubs or trees ten to forty feet high.Leaves.—Opposite; petioled; with five palmate, stalked leaflets.Leaflets.—Oblong; acute; three to five inches long; serrulate.Flowers.—White; in a thyrse a foot long; many of them imperfect.Calyx.—Tubular; two-lobed.Petals.—Four or five; six lines or more long; unequal.Stamens.—Five to seven; exserted. Anthers buff.Ovary.—Three-celled.Nuts.—One to three inches in diameter; usually one in the pod.Hab.—Coast Ranges of Middle California; also the Sierra foothills.

Our Californian buckeye is closely allied to the horse-chestnuts and buckeyes of the eastern half of the continent. It is usually found upon stream-banks or the side-walls of cañons, and reaches its greatest perfection in the valleys of our central Coast Ranges. It usually branches low into a number of clean, round, light-gray limbs, which widen out into a broad, dense, rounded head. Its leaves are fully developed before the flowers appear. When in full bloom, in May, it is considered one of the most beautiful of all our American species. Its long, white flower-spikes, sprinkled rather regularly over the green mound of foliage, are very suggestive of a neat calico print. Early to come, the leaves are as early to depart, and by midsummer the beautiful skeleton is often bare, its interlacing twigs making a delicate network against the deep azure of the sky.

Though lavish in its production of flowers, usually but one or two of the large cluster succeed in maturing fruit. By October and November the leathery pods begin to yield up their big golden-brown nuts, which are great favorites among the squirrels. The Indians are said to resort to these nuts in times of famine. Before using them, they roast them a day or two in the ground, to extract the poison.

The inner wood of the root, after being kiln-cured for several weeks, becomes very valuable to the cabinet-maker. It is then of an exquisite mottled green, and when highly polished can hardly be distinguished from a fine piece of onyx.

Radical-leaves.—Spatulate or oblanceolate; six lines to four inches long.Stem-leaves.—Similar, but smaller, often reduced to a few bracts.Scapes.—Several; two to twelve inches high.Flowers.—In dense spikes.Sepals.—Two; orbicular; thin; papery; two to four lines across; whitish; equaling the petals.Petals.—Four; rose-color.Stamens.—Three.Ovary.—One-celled. Style bifid.Hab.—The Sierras, from the Yosemite to British Columbia.

Pussy's-paws is a very plentiful plant in the Sierras, usually growing upon dry, rocky soil. It varies much in aspect, sometimes sending up a stout, erect flower-scape, and again growing low and matlike with its prostrate flower-stems radiating from the center. It blooms from early summer onward, often almost covering the ground with its blossoms. The flower-clusters grow in a bunch, much like the pink cushions on pussy's feet, whence the pretty common name.

Without a trunk.Leaves.—All radical in a bristling hemisphere; sword-like.Flower-panicles.—Distaff-shaped; three or more feet long; at the summit of a leafless bracteate scape, ten or fifteen feet high.Perianth.—Rotately spreading; waxen-white (sometimes rich purple), often green- or purple-nerved.Filaments.—Clavate; pure white. Anthers transverse; yellow. Style very thick; three-angled. Stigma stalked; green; covered with tiny prominences.Fruit.—A dry capsule. (Structure otherwise as inY. Mohavensis.)Hab.—Monterey to San Diego and eastward.

In spring and early summer the chaparral-covered hillsides of Southern California present a wonderful appearance when hundreds of these Spanish bayonets are in bloom. From day to day the waxen tapers on the distant slopes increase in height as the white bells climb the slender shafts. At length each cluster reaches its perfection, and becomes a solid distaff of sometimes two—yes, even six—thousand of the waxen blossoms!

PUSSY'S-PAWS—Spraguea umbellata.

A friend writing of them, once said: "Nearly every poetaster in the country has sung the praises of the yellow poppies and the sweet littleNemophilas, but not one, so far as Iknow, has ever written a stanza to these grand white soldiers and their hundred swords." There is, indeed, something glorious and warlike about them, as they marshal themselves to the defense of our hillsides.

This surpasses all known species in the height and beauty of its flower-panicles; but, once the season of flowering and fruiting has been consummated, its life mission is fulfilled, and the plant dies. The dead stalks remain standing sometimes for years upon the mountain-sides.

The seeds of this species, as well as those of the tree-yucca, are made into flour by the Indians; and from the leaves they obtain a soft, white fiber, which they use in making the linings of the coarse saddle-blankets they weave fromYucca Mohavensis. The undeveloped flowering shoots they consider a great delicacy, either raw or prepared as mescal. They gather great numbers of the plants when just at the right stage, and strip off the leaves, leaving round masses. These they prepare after the manner of a clam-bake, and when the pile is pulled to pieces and the mescal is taken out, it has a faint resemblance to a baked sweet apple, and is of about the same consistency. The whole mass is a mixture of sweet, soft pulp and coarse white fibers much like manilla rope-yarn.

This is the most charming of all our Californian lilies, even surpassing in loveliness the beautiful Washington lily; and it is said to be the most fragrant of any in the world. It resembles the Washington lily; but its flowers are fuller in form, with wider petals and shorter tube, and it has a smaller bulb. It sends up a noble shaft, sometimes seven feet high, with many scattered whorls of undulate leaves, and often bears at the summit as many as twenty-five of the beautiful flowers. These are at first pure white, dotted with purple, but they soontake on a metallic luster and begin to turn to a delicate pink, which gradually deepens into a ruby purple. Mr. Purdy mentions having seen a plant with a stalk nine feet high, bearing thirty-six flowers.

RUBY LILY—Lilium rubescens.

The favorite haunts of this lily are high and inaccessible ridges, among the chaparral, or under the live-oak or redwood. Comparatively few people know of its existence, though living within a few miles of it, because they rarely ever visit these out-of-the-way fastnesses of nature.

Mr. Burroughs has somewhere said: "Genius is a specialty; it does not grow in every soil, it skips the many and touches the few; and the gift of perfume to a flower is a special grace, like genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or cheap." Certainly these blossoms have been richly endowed with this charming gift, and their delicious fragrance wafted by the wind often betrays their presence upon a hillside when unsuspected before, so that one skilled in woodcraft can often trace them by it.

Stems.—One to two and one half feet high; hispid throughout, or armed with rigid bristles or prickles. Sap yellow.Leaves.—Thistle-like; three to six inches long.Flowers.—White; two to four inches in diameter.Sepals.—Three; spinosely beaked.Petals.—Four to six.Stamens.—Numerous. Filaments slender.Ovary.—Oblong; one-celled. Stigma three- or four-lobed. Capsule very prickly.Hab.—Dry hillsides from Central California southward.

The thistle-poppy would be considered in any other country a surpassingly beautiful flower, with its large diaphanous white petals and its thistly gray-green foliage, but in California it must yield precedence to the Matilija poppy. It resembles the latter very closely in its flower, and is often mistaken for it. It may be known by its yellow juice, its prickly foliage, and its very prickly capsules. I believe the flowers are somewhat more cup-shaped than those ofRomneya.

It affects dry hill-slopes and valleys, often otherwise barren,where it grows luxuriantly, and sometimes attains a height of six feet, being in full bloom in May. There, where one is unprepared for such a sight, it becomes an object of startling beauty.

Stems.—Stout; a foot or two high; woody.Leaves.—Lanceolate to spatulate; one or two inches long; entire or pinnatifid; somewhat succulent.Flower-heads.—Terminating the paniculate branches; large; two inches or so across; white, changing to rose or lilac; of ray-flowers only.Involucre.—Campanulate or hemispherical; six lines high, with many imbricated scales passing downward into loose, awl-shaped bracts.Hab.—The Coast, from Santa Barbara southward.

This beautiful plant is a dweller upon the ocean cliffs, and may be seen in abundance from the car-windows just before the train reaches Santa Barbara going north. The stems are woody and very leafy, and the plants are usually covered all over the top with the showy flower-heads.

M. tenuifolia, Torr. and Gray, is a very tall, slender, sparsely leafy plant with fragile, airy white flowers. This is common along the dusty roadsides of the south in early summer.

Shrubby, and one to three or more feet high or prostrate.Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; ovate to elliptical; pointed; two to four inches long; leathery; bristle-toothed when young; evergreen.Flowers.—Manzanita-like; slenderer; glandular-viscid; white or pinkish.Ovary.—Five-celled. Style single.Fruit.—Black; berry-like; aromatic; edible. (Otherwise likeArctostaphylos Manzanita.)Hab.—Coast woods, from Santa Barbara County to British Columbia.

The floor of the redwood forest in our northern coast counties is often carpeted with this little undershrub, while in other places one can wade waist-deep in it. It grows much larger north of us, and upon Vancouver Island it forms dense, impenetrable thickets. Its dark-purple berries have a very agreeable flavor, and form an important article of diet among the Oregon Indians, who call them "salal."

Root.—Thick; aromatic.Stems.—Eight to ten feet high.Leaves.—Bipinnate; or the upper pinnate, with one or two pairs of leaflets.Leaflets.—Cordate-ovate; four to eight inches long; serrate.Flowers.—White; two lines long; in globular umbels, arranged in loose panicles a foot or two long. Pedicels four to six lines long.Calyx.—Five-toothed or entire.Petals and Stamens.—Five.Ovary.—Two- to five-celled. Styles united to the middle.Fruit.—A purple berry.Hab.—Widely distributed; on stream-banks.

In moist, cool ravines, where the sun only slants athwart the branches and a certain dankness always lingers, the Californian spikenard scents the air with its peculiar odor. It closely resemblesA. racemosaof the Eastern States, but it is a larger, coarser plant in every way. It throws up its tall stems with a fine confidence that there will be ample space for its large leaves to spread themselves uncrowded. Its feathery panicles of white flowers are followed by clusters of small purple berries, and are rather more delicate than we should expect from so large a plant.

Rootstock creeping.Radical-leaves.—Long-petioled; elliptic oblong; two to ten inches long.Stems.—Six inches to two feet high.Flowers.—Without sepals and petals, sunk in a conical spike; six to eighteen lines long; a small white bract under each flower.Spikes.—Subtended by from five to eight white petal-like bracts, six to fifteen lines long.Stamens.—Three to eight.Ovary.—Apparently one-celled. Stigmas one to five.Hab.—Southern to Central California.

Just as the fervid glow of the sun is beginning to transform the green of our southern hill-slopes to soft browns, the still vividly green lowland meadows suddenly bring forth myriads of white stars, which in their green setting become grateful resting-points for the eye. These are the blossoms of the famousYerba Mansaof the Spanish-Californians. Among these people the plant is an infallible remedy for many disorders, and so highly do they prize it, that they often travel or send long distances for it.

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