SHEPHERD'S PURSE.

YERBA MANSA—Anemopsis Californica.

The aromatic root, which has a strong, peppery taste, isvery astringent, and when made into a tea or a powder, is applied with excellent results to cuts and sores. The tea is also taken as a blood-purifier; and the plant, in the form of a wash or poultice, is used for rheumatism, while the wilted leaves are said to reduce swellings. In the medical world it is beginning to be used in diseases of the mucous membrane.

Among our commonest and most harmless weeds is the shepherd's purse, which has been introduced from Europe in the past. It may be easily recognized by its tiny white cruciferous flowers and its shapely little triangular, flat pods, which have a peppery taste. It is used medicinally, and valued as a remedy for many different maladies. In Europe, a common name for the plant is "mother's heart," and Mr. Johnston says that children play a sort of game with the seed-pouch. "They hold it out to their companions, inviting them to 'take a haud o' that.' It immediately cracks, and then follows a triumphant shout, 'You've broken your mother's heart!'"

Equally common is theLepidium, or pepper-grass, the small round, flat pods of which also have a peppery taste. Both of these belong to the great Mustard family.

Stems.—A foot or two high; branching.Leaves.—Narrow; grasslike; channeled; glaucous; decumbent.Flowers.—Erect; cup-shaped; white, lilac, pink, claret, magenta, purple, or rarely light yellow; of uniform color or shaded; plain or variously oculated, stained, or blotched.Petals.—One or two inches long; slightly hairy below.Gland.—Large; roundish; densely hairy.Capsule.—Lanceolate; four or five lines broad. (SeeCalochortus.)Hab.—Dry sandy soil, in the Coast Ranges and Sierra foothills, from Mendocino County to Los Angeles.

I once emerged from the dense chaparral of a steep hillside upon a grassy slope, where myriads of these lovely flowerstossed their delicate cups upon the breeze. As I passed from flower to flower, I noticed many insect guests regaling themselves upon the nectar. Bees and flies jostled one another and crawled amid the hairs below, and beautifully mottled butterflies hovered over them.

MARIPOSA TULIP—Calochortus venustus.

As originally described, this flower was white or pale lilac, with a more or less conspicuous, usually reddish, stain, or blotch, near the top, a brownish spot bordered with yellow in the center, and a brownish striate base. But it varies so widely from this type, in both color and spots, that neither is a reliable character from which to determine the species. Some of the oculated forms ofC. luteusare so similar that they are readily confused with this, but a careful examination of the gland and the form of the capsule, together with the character of the soil in which the plants grow, will identify the species.

Hab.—Along streams near the coast.

This may be easily distinguished fromS. Xantiby its very small white flowers, whose corollas are but three or four lines across, and much more deeply and pointedly lobed, the lobes having a tendency to turn backward as the flowers grow older; also by its thinner, duller leaves, and much smaller, black berries, the size of peas.

It is considered a violent narcotic poison, both berries and leaves having caused death when eaten. It is used in the medical world, in the form of a tincture for various maladies, and it is said that in Bohemia the blossoming plant is hung over the cradles of infants to induce sweet slumber; while in Dalmatia the root is fried in butter and eaten to produce sleep, and is also used as remedy for hydrophobia.

Solanum Douglasii, Dunal, is a similar species, with larger flowers, which are usually white, though sometimes light blue.

Hab.—Sierras and Coast Ranges, from Fresno County to Oregon.

Of all our lovely Mariposa tulips, this charming form is perhaps the most like the insect for which it is named. Its creamy or purplish flowers have an exquisitely tinted dark-maroon eye, surrounded by yellow, and it is often streaked in marvelous imitation of the insect's wing. It was doubtless this form Miss Coolbrith had in mind when she wrote the beautiful lines below:

"Insect or blossom? Fragile, fairy thing,Poised upon slender tip and quiveringTo flight! a flower of the fields of air;A jeweled moth, a butterfly with rareAnd tender tints upon his downy wingA moment resting in our happy sight;A flower held captive by a thread so slightIts petal-wings of broidered gossamerAre, light as the wind, with every wind astir,Wafting sweet odor, faint and exquisite.O dainty nursling of the field and sky!What fairer thing looks up to heaven's blue,And drinks the noontide sun, the dawning's dew?Thou winged bloom! thou blossom butterfly!"

Stems.—Slender; a foot or two high.Leaves.—Round-reniform; palmately three- to seven-lobed; one to three inches broad; the lobes coarsely toothed.Flowers.—In long-peduncled, loose panicles; white; four lines across; parts in fives.Calyx.—With acute teeth.Petals.—On the sinuses of the calyx.Stamens.—On the calyx, opposite its teeth. Filaments short.Ovary.—With its two cells attenuate into the slender styles.Hab.—Coast Ranges, from Santa Barbara to Washington.

The tufted leaves, and exquisitely delicate saxifrage-like clusters of theBoykinia, fringe our streams in early summer.

Bulb.—One to four inches in diameter; densely brown-fibrous.Leaves.—Six to eighteen inches long.Scape.—One to five feet high; bearing a loosely spreading panicle.Perianth.—White; of six spreading, recurved segments nine lines long.Stamens.—Six; shorter than the segments.Ovary.—Three-celled. Style filiform. Stigma three-lobed.Hab.—Widely distributed.

The leaves of the soap-plant have been with us all the spring, increasing in length as the season has advanced. You can easily recognize them, as they resemble a broad, wavy-margined grass, usually lying flat upon the ground, with some of the ragged brown fibres of the bulb showing aboveground, like the fragment of an old manilla mat.

In early summer, from their midst begins to shoot a slender stalk. When the process of its growth is complete, it stands from two to five feet high, with slender, widespreading branches and rather sparsely scattered flowers.

If you would find its flowers open, you must seek it in the afternoon. At a little distance, it appears as though the truant summer wind had lodged a delicate white feather here and there upon the branches. In themselves, these blossoms are not ill-favored, with their slender, recurved petals; but to us the root is the most interesting part of the plant. This the early Spanish-Californians used extensively in lieu of soap, and esteemed greatly as a hair tonic, and it was known by them as "amole." Even now it is much used among their descendants, and we know of one aged señora over ninety who refuses to use anything else for washing. Her grandsons keep her supplied with the bulbs, which they dig by the sackful from the neighboring hill-slopes and mesas. She takes her linen down to the brookside, and there, in primitive fashion, upon her knees she scours and rinses it till it is as white as the driven snow.

SOAP-PLANT—Chlorogalum pomeridianum.

The Indians of the Sierra foothills have a curious use for the bulb. After the June freshets have subsided, many fish are usually left in small pools in the streams. The squaws goto these pools with an abundance of soap-root, and kneeling upon the banks, rub up a great suds with it. The fish soon rise to the surface stupefied, and are easily taken.

We are told that in the early days of the gold excitement, when commodities were scarce and brought fabulous prices, the fibrous outer coats of the bulb were used for stuffing mattresses.

The inner portion of the bulb, when reduced to a paste, is said to be an excellent remedy for oak-poisoning, applied as a salve.

This is not the only plant popularly known as soap-plant among us. Several others share the title, among them the goose-foot, the yucca, and the California lilac. There are several other species ofChlorogalum.

Shrubs or small trees; five to twelve feet high; with cylindrical, usually warty, branches.Leaves.—Alternate; on slender petioles two to six lines long; ovate to ovate-oblong; one to three inches long; entire or rarely slightly glandular-serrulate; thin.Flowers.—White; sometimes blue; in a thyrse three to seven inches long, one to four thick.Fruit.—Not crested. (SeeCeanothus.)Hab.—Mountains from Los Angeles to the Columbia River.

When in flower, this is one of the most attractive of all ourCeanothi. It often covers great mountain-sides with its white bloom as with drifted snow. The trip to the Yosemite is often diversified by this beautiful spectacle, which comes as an exhilarating surprise.

Among the mountaineers this shrub is highly valued as forage for their cattle, which they turn upon it after the lowland pastures have dried up.

The young twigs and leaves have the spicy fragrance of the black birch of the Eastern States. The foliage is deciduous, and of rather a pale though bright green. The bark of the root of this shrub is becoming celebrated as a remedy for various disorders, such as malaria, catarrh, and liver trouble.

Stems.—Stout; simple below; parted in the middle into numerous widespreading branches; two feet high; succulent; sparsely villous.Flowers.—In long-peduncled racemes; six to ten inches long; with usually five or six dense whorls. Bracts bristle-like, from a broad base.Calyx.—Upper lip scarious; deeply cleft; lower long, toothed.Corolla.—White or rose-color; seven lines or so long; the standard dark dotted.Pod.—Two-seeded.Hab.—Widespread; Sacramento Valley southward.

In the days when we went fishing in the brook with a pin for minnows, a company of these pretty white lupines in a field represented to our childish fancy so many graceful dames in flounced skirts dancing in a sylvan ballroom.

Shrubs two to six feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; an inch or two long; oval or ovate; crenately lobed above; the lobes often toothed; silky pubescent beneath.Flowers.—White; two lines across; in feathery panicles several inches long.Calyx.—Five-parted; petaloid.Petals.—Five; equaling the sepals.Stamens.—About twenty.Pistils.—Five; distinct; one-celled.Hab.—Coast Ranges, mostly from Monterey County northward.

Not until midsummer is upon us does the common meadow-sweet make itself noticeable by its large feathery clusters of minute white flowers, which have a pleasant odor, reminiscent of slippery-elm.

We have two species ofSpiræawith pink flowers—S. Douglasii, Hook., the Californian hardhack, having its blossoms in long clusters, (found in Northern California,) andS. betulifolia, Pall., having flat-topped flower-clusters, (found in the Sierras).

Another shrub closely resembling theSpiræasisNeillia opulifolia, Benth. and Hook., the wild bridal-wreath, or ninebark. Indeed, this has been classed by some authorities among theSpiræas. It may be easily recognized by its hemispherical clusters of white flowers. These clusters arean inch or two across. Though the shrub is quite showy when in bloom, it is almost equally attractive when its carpels are beginning to redden.

Shrubs two to twelve feet high.Leaves.—Clustered at the ends of the branches; obovate to lanceolate; two to four inches long; herbaceous.Flower-clusters.—Large, from a special terminal bud.Calyx.—Deeply five-cleft.Corolla.—With funnel-form tube, and five-cleft border; white; the upper lobe blotched with corn-color; sometimes tinged with pink; glandular-viscid without.Stamens.—Five. Anthers two-celled, opening terminally.Ovary.—Five-celled.Capsule.—Very woody.Hab.—Stream-banks throughout the State.

One of the most deservedly admired of all our shrubs is the lovely Californian azalea. In June and July, the borders of our mountain streams are covered for miles with the bushes, whose rich green foliage is often almost obscured from view by the magnificent clusters of white and yellow, or sometimes pinkish, flowers. Its delicious, spicy perfume is always subtly suggestive of charming days spent with rod and line along cool streams, or of those all too brief outings spent far from the haunts of men, in some sequestered mountain-cabin among redwood groves or by rushing waters.

In Oregon it is commonly known as "honeysuckle," and there in the autumn its life ebbs away in a flood of glory, showering the forest floor with flecks of scarlet and crimson. Its root is said to contain a strong narcotic poison, and the leaves are also reputed to be poisonous if eaten, but they are not at all harmful to the touch.

CALIFORNIAN AZALEA—Rhododendron occidentale.

Stems.—One or two feet high.Leaves.—All radical; twice to thrice ternately compound.Leaflets.—One to two inches broad; rich shining green; persisting; undulate and membrane-margined.Flowers.—Twenty-five to fifty, in loose panicles; small; with six to nine sepal-like bracts. Parts in sixes all in front of one another.Sepals.—Petaloid; two lines long.Petals.—White to lavender.Stamens.—Erect; closely appressed to the pistil.Ovary.—One-celled. Style stoutish.Hab.—Coast Ranges of Central California.

There is no more exquisite plant in our coast woods than the American barrenwort. Its delicate threadlike stems, which are yet strong and wiry, hold up its spreading evergreen leaves, every leaflet in its own place. There is a likeness in these leaves to the fronds of our Californian maidenhair, and one could easily imagine the maidenhair amplified, strengthened, and polished into this form. The leaflets are also somewhat ivy-like in form.

In June its delicate, airy panicles of small white blossoms appear. These are especially interesting as belonging to the Barberry family, where all the floral organs stand in front of one another, and the anthers open by cunningly contrived little uplifting valves. These plants are said to grow upon bushy hillsides, in masses sometimes several feet across. But I have never seen it with other than an exclusive and rather solitary habit, growing in shaded forests. We have one or two other species.

Deciduous shrubs, three to eight feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; petioled; from rounded to oblong-ovate; serrate usually only toward the apex; six to eighteen lines long.Flowers.—White, in short racemes.Calyx-tube.—Campanulate; limb five-parted.Petals.—Five; oblong; six lines or so long.Stamens.—Twenty; short.Ovary.—Three- to five-celled. Styles three to five.Fruit.—Small; berry-like; dark purple.Hab.—Throughout the State and northward; also eastward to the Western States.

AMERICAN BARRENWORT—Vancouveria parviflora.

The service-berry seems to be at home throughout our borders, but it reaches its greatest perfection north of us, onthe rich bottom-lands of the Columbia River. In spring the bushes are beautiful, when snowily laden with masses of ragged white flowers; and from June to September they are no less welcome, when abundantly hung with the black berries, which usually have a bloom upon them. These berries are an important article of food among our Western Indians, who make annual pilgrimages to the regions of their growth, gathering and drying large quantities for winter use. The drying they effect by crushing them to a paste, which they spread upon bark or stones in the sun. It is said that many a party of explorers, lost in the woods, has been kept alive by this little fruit.

Almost the same shrub in the Atlantic States is called "shad-bush," because it blooms at about the season when the shad are running up the streams.

Shrubs four to twenty-five feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; oblong; serrate; leathery; two to four inches long.Flowers.—Small; white; four lines across; in dense terminal panicles.Calyx.—Five-toothed.Petals.—Five; roundish; spreading.Stamens.—Ten; on the calyx. Filaments awl-shaped; flat.Ovaries.—Two; one-celled. Styles slender.Berries.—Red; four lines in diameter; in large clusters.Hab.—Coast Ranges, from San Diego to Mendocino County.

Christmas could hardly be celebrated among us without our beautiful Californian holly. Florists' windows and the baskets of street-venders at that season are gay with the magnificent clusters of rich cardinal berries, which are really ripe by Thanksgiving. The common name, "Californian holly," refers more to the berries than to the leaves, as the latter have not the form of holly-leaves. We have often seen the venders mix the berries with the prickly foliage of the live-oak, to make them seem more like holly.

The large clusters of spicy white flowers appear in July and August. Nothing in all our flora yields a finer contrast oflavish scarlet against rich green. The berries have a rather pleasant taste, somewhat acid and astringent, and are eaten by the Indians with great relish. The Spanish-Californians used them in the preparation of an agreeable drink.

This is a very handsome shrub in cultivation.

Nearly smooth.Stems.—Woody; sometimes climbing thirty feet.Leaves.—Opposite; long-petioled; five-foliolate.Leaflets.—Ovate to lanceolate; eighteen lines to three inches long; three-lobed and coarsely toothed; rarely entire or three-parted.Flowers.—Diœcious; in axillary panicles.Sepals.—Four; petaloid; four to six lines long; thin.Petals.—Wanting.Stamens.—Numerous.Pistils.—Many; becoming long-tailed, silky akenes.Hab.—Widely distributed.

The virgin's bower usually looks down upon us from among the branches of some tree, where it entwines itself indistinguishably with the foliage of its host. It climbs by means of the stalks of its leaflets, which wrap themselves about small twigs. This species is not so noticeable during the season of its blossoming as it is later, when the long plumes of its seed have twisted themselves into silvery balls, making feathery masses. Mrs. Blochman writes that among the Spanish-Californians, it is called "yerba de chivato," and valued as a remedy for barbed-wire cuts in animals. It is used in the form of a wash, and remarkable cures are effected.

Another widespread species—C. lasiantha, Nutt.—is far more showy than the above. It is found in the Coast Ranges, from Los Angeles to Napa County at least, and in the Sierras to Plumas County. Its long-peduncled flowers are solitary; but they are so numerous and grow so closely together, that they make dense masses of white, conspicuous at a long distance. The flowers are larger, the sepals being an inch long, and covered with a silky pubescence, which makes them like soft cream-colored velvet. The three ovate leaflets are also silky.

Roots.—Fascicled tubers.Stems.—Stout; four to eighteen inches high.Leaves.—Oblong-lanceolate to linear.Spikes.—One to even ten inches long.Perianth.—Yellowish white; four lines long. Upper sepal and two petals coherent. Lip recurved, bearing a small protuberance on each side at base.Anther.—On the face of the short column.Ovary.—One-celled.Hab.—Through the mountains from Los Angeles northward.

The twisted spikes of these little orchids are interesting, because their ranks remain so clearly defined as they wind about the stem. The plants vary greatly in different seasons as to size, and are usually found in moist places.

Shrubby; a foot or two high; branching freely; glandular pubescent throughout; fragrant.Leaves.—Alternate; finely dissected; ovate or oblong in outline; two or three inches long.Flowers.—White; few in terminal cymes.Calyx.—Five-lobed.Petals.—Five; spreading; three or four lines long.Stamens.—Very numerous; short.Ovary.—Solitary. Style terminal.Fruit.—A leathery akene.Hab.—The Sierras, from Mariposa County to Nevada County.

One of the most conspicuous plants to be met on the way to the Yosemite is theChamæbatia. It is exceedingly abundant, covering considerable areas and filling the air with its balsamic fragrance, strongly suggestive of tansy, though to many not so agreeable as the latter. It is a beautiful plant, with its feathery leaves and strawberry-like flowers; but by the roadside, where its viscid leaves and stems have caught the dust, it is often but a travesty of itself.

Mrs. Brandegee writes of it: "Along the line of the railroad in Placer County it is often called 'bear-clover,' perhaps in accordance with our felicitous custom of giving names, because it bears not the least resemblance to clover, and the bear will have nothing to do with it."

LADIES' TRESSES—Spiranthes Romanzoffianum.

Shrubs or trees, fifteen to seventy feet high.Leaves.—Opposite; obovate; acute at each end; three to five inches long.Flowers.—Numerous; small; greenish; in a head surrounded by an involucre of four to six large, yellowish or white bracts, often tinged with red, and eighteen lines to three inches long.Calyx.—Four-toothed.Petals and Stamens.—Four.Ovary.—Two-celled.Fruit.—Scarlet; five or six lines long.Hab.—The Coast Ranges and Sierras, from Monterey and Plumas Counties to British Columbia.

Our large-flowered dogwood more nearly resembles the EasternC. floridathan any other species, but it is a much handsomer shrub than the latter. It reaches its maximum size in Northern Oregon and Washington, where, in the season of its blossoming, it is a sight never to be forgotten. Its masses of large white flowers, like single Cherokee roses, contrast finely with the deep, rich greens of the fir forests, in which it often grows. In its northern range, its leaves turn beautifully, and it becomes one of the most brilliant masqueraders in the autumn pageant.

The wood is very hard, close-grained, and tough, and is used as a substitute for boxwood in the making of bobbins and shuttles for weaving, and also in cabinet-work.

Root.—A fusiform tuber.Stems.—One to four feet high; leafy throughout.Leaves.—Lanceolate; diminishing upward.Flowers.—Bright white, in a spike.Perianth segments.—Two or three lines long.Lip.—Four lines long, with a slender spur four to six lines long.Anther.—On the column just above the stigma.Ovary.—One-celled.Hab.—Mountains throughout California.

From July to September we may look for the milk-white rein-orchis in moist meadows. It is especially abundant in the Sierras, where its charmingly fragrant, pure-white spikes are particularly effective against the lush green of the alpine meadows.

MILK-WHITE REIN-ORCHIS—Habenaria leucostachys.

Stems.—Two or three feet high; stout.Leaves.—Alternate; ovate; coarsely angled; long-petioled.Flowers.—In the forks of the stem; short-pediceled; white.Calyx.—Tubular; angled; five-toothed; over an inch long.Corolla.—Funnel-form; three inches long; with an expanded five-angled border.Stamens.—Five; included. Filaments long and slender; adnate to the corolla below. Style long.Ovary.—Two-celled; each cell nearly divided again.Fruit.—Larger than a walnut; prickly.Hab.—Waste grounds near habitations; introduced.

The jimson-weed, which is a native of Asia, has become quite common in waste places. It is a rank, ill-smelling, nauseating weed, possessing narcotic, poisonous qualities, but its flowers are rather large and showy. The leaves and seeds are made into the drug called "stramonium," which is used as a remedy in neuralgia, spasmodic cough, and other disorders.

As the plant usually grows by roadsides or in the vicinity of dwellings, children are not infrequently poisoned by its fruit and leaves. The poison manifests itself in dryness of the throat, rapid pulse, and delirium; and even death may ensue, preceded by convulsions and coma.

This plant is also called "mad-apple," "apple of Peru," and "Devil's apple."

It has a near relative—D. suaveolens, HBK.,—a large shrub with dark-green leaves and very large, pendulous white flowers. This is common in Californian gardens, and is known popularly as "floriponda," or "angels' trumpets." It sheds a powerful fragrance upon the air at night, which is not noticeable by day.

Stems.—A foot or two high.Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; twice-pinnately parted into fine linear, acute, three- to five-cleft lobes; lanceolate in outline; two to four inches long; strong-scented.Flower-heads.—Crowded in a flat cluster; white, sometimes pink; four lines across, including the rays; made up of white disk-flowers and obovate white rays.Hab.—All around the Northern Hemisphere.

The yarrow, which is a common weed in most countries of the Northern Hemisphere, has long been known to botanists and herbalists, and was formerly in high repute for its many virtues. The leaves steeped in hot water are still considered very healing applications to cuts or bruises; and among the Spanish-Californians the fresh plants are used for stanching the blood in recent wounds.

This plant received the nameAchillea, because the great hero of the Trojan war was supposed to have been the first to discover its virtues.

In Sweden it is used as a substitute for hops in the brewing of beer. Among the superstitious, even of the present day, it is regarded as a most potent love-charm, when plucked by a love-lorn maiden from the grave of a young man, while repeating the proper formula.

In the spring, the plants first develop a rosette of finely dissected, feathery leaves, which lie flat upon the ground. Later, when these are well grown, it sends up its tall flower-stalks, crowned with close, flat clusters of small white blossoms.

M. Naudin, who has an intimate knowledge of the plants of dry countries, recommends the yarrow for lawn-making where irrigation is impossible. "It grows freely in the driest of weather, and makes a handsome turf. It must be frequently cut, however, to prevent it from throwing up flower-stems. It will not succeed on a lime-impregnated soil."

Among children the yarrow is commonly known as "old man."

Leaves.—Two or three inches long; leathery; dark green, veined with white.Scape.—Six to fifteen inches high, with scattered lanceolate bracts.Spike.—Many-flowered.Perianth.—White; two to four lines long; downy. Lateral sepals deflexed; upper and two petals coherent. Lip erect, saccate below, concave above, and narrowing into the recurved summit.Anther.—On the base of the column behind.Ovary.—One-celled.Hab.—Mountains, from Mendocino and Mariposa Counties to British Columbia.

The rattlesnake plantain is frequently met under the coniferous trees of our northern woods. Its common name comes from the mottling of its leaves, which is similar to that of the rattlesnake's skin. In midsummer, or later, the plant sends up a stalk of small but shapely little blossoms. These are so modest, one would hardly suspect they belonged to the showy orchis family.

Shrubs eight to ten feet high.Leaves.—Opposite, or in whorls of three or four; petioled; ovate to lanceolate; three to five inches long.Flowers.—Small; white; in spherical heads an inch in diameter.Calyx.—Four-toothed.Corolla.—Long funnel-form with four-cleft limb.Stamens.—Four; short; borne on the throat of the corolla.Ovary.—Two- to four-celled. Style long-exserted. Stigma capitate.Hab.—Throughout the State.

The button-bush is a handsome shrub, found upon stream borders, often standing where its roots are constantly under water. Its leaves are willow-like, and its spherical flower-heads, poised gracefully at the ends of the branches, resemble small cushions filled with pins. The blossoms often have a jessamine-like fragrance.

A tincture made of the bark is used by physicians as a tonic and laxative and as a remedy for fevers and coughs.

This shrub is especially abundant in the interior, on the lower reaches of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, where it is in bloom from June to August.

RATTLESNAKE PLANTAIN—Goodyera Menziesii.

Leaves.—Leathery; dark green, veined with white; one or two inches long.Scape.—Four to nine inches high.Calyx.—Five-parted.Petals.—Six lines or so long; white.Stamens.—Ten. Anthers opening terminally.Ovary.—Five-celled. Style long; curved.Hab.—The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County, and northward.

The great coniferous forests of our higher mountains afford homes for many interesting members of the Heath family. A trip to the Sierras in August will yield many a prize to the flower-lover.Pyrolas, with waxen clusters, vie withPipsissiwas; the weird lookingPterosporarears its uncanny, gummy stems, clothed with small, yellowish bells, while an occasional glimpse of a blood-red spike betrays the most wonderful of them all—the snow-plant.

Of thePyrolaswe made the acquaintance of three in this region. These pretty plants are called "shinleaf," because the leaves of some of the species were used by the English peasantry as plasters which they applied to bruises or sores.Pyrola picta, with its rich leathery, white-veined leaves and clusters of whitish, waxen flowers, was quite plentiful and always a delight to meet.Pyrola dentata, Smith, we often found growing with it. This has spatulate, wavy-margined leaves; which are pale and not veined with white, and its scapes are more slender. It never was so attractive or vigorous a plant as the other.

A ramble in the woods one day brought us to the brink of a charming stream, whose pure, ice-cold waters babbled along most invitingly. Following its course, we found ourselves in a delightfully cool, moist thicket, where, nestling in the deep shade, we found the beautiful, rich, glossy leaves ofPyrola rotundifolia, var. bracteata, Gray. The leaves are roundish, of a beautiful, bright chrome green, highly polished, and the delicate flowers are rose-pink. This is called "Indian lettuce" and "canker lettuce," and a tincture of the fresh plant is used in medicine for the same purposes as chimaphila.P. aphylla,Smith, is easily distinguished by the absence of leaves. It has flesh-colored stems, and its flowers are sometimes of the same color, and sometimes white. This is found in the Coast Ranges.

WHITE-VEINED SHINLEAF—Pyrola picta.

Stems.—One to three feet high; leafy up to the flowers.Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; two to four inches long; white-woolly, at length becoming green above.Heads.—Of filiform disk-flowers only.Involucre.—Of many rows of pearly white, pointed scales, not longer than the flowers, resembling ray-flowers.Hab.—Widely distributed over the northern parts of America and Asia.

Our wild everlasting flowers are very difficult of determination, and are comprised under at least three genera,Gnaphalium,Anaphalis, andAntennaria. The wordAnaphalisis from the same root as the wordGnaphalium, and the species have quite the aspect ofGnaphalium.

The flowers of the pearly everlasting have a peculiarly pure pearly look before they are entirely open, and their sharp-pointed little scales give them a prim, set look, like very regular, tiny white roses. There is a hint of green in them, but they are never of the dirty yellowish-white of the cudweed, nor have they the slippery-elm-like fragrance of the latter. When fully expanded, the centers are brown. The leaves, which at length become a dark, shining green, make a fine contrast with the permanently white-woolly stems. The flower-clusters are loosely compound.

Hab.—Throughout the Sierras from three to six thousand feet elevation.

I shall never forget the thrill of delight I felt on first beholding this noble white lily, some years ago, in an open fir forest near Mt. Shasta. I had often heard of it, but never dared hope it would be my privilege to gather it for myself in its own native haunts.

The blossoms somewhat resemble those of the ruby lily, but the petals have longer claws and are more loosely put together. They are fragrant, but their perfume is not to be compared with that of the ruby lily.

Mr. Purdy once saw, upon a single great mountain-side, ten thousand of these wonderful plants, upbearing their beautiful, pure lilies—a sight outrivaling the poet's vision of the golden daffodils.

The Shasta lily is never found in the Coast Ranges. Another species,L. Parryi, Wats., resembling this in the form of its flowers, is found in the San Bernardino Mountains. This is known as the "lemon lily," and has clear yellow flowers, dotted sparingly with deeper yellow. It is a charming flower, and is always found in shaded, springy places in cool cañons.

Shrubs two to six feet high.Leaves.—Alternate; short-petioled; oblong or oval; an inch or two long; coriaceous; sprinkled beneath with resin-dots.Flowers.—White; in terminal and axillary clusters.Calyx.—Five-cleft.Petals.—Five; three lines long; rotately spreading.Stamens.—Four to ten. Anthers opening terminally.Ovary.—Five-celled. Style filiform, persistent.Hab.—The Coast Ranges, from Mendocino County northward, and through the Sierras.

Our Labrador tea is a comely shrub, found in the mountains at an elevation of four thousand feet and upward. Its small, leathery leaves are miniature copies of those of the Californian rhododendron, differing from them, however, in the sprinkling of resin-dots upon the under surface.

Upon seeing the flowers of this shrub for the first time, one is apt to imagine it a member of the Rose family, something akin to the cherry, with its clusters of small white flowers of a bitter fragrance; but a glance at the anthers, with their terminal pores, tells the story quickly.

A tea made from the leaves is, with many people, a valued remedy for rheumatism.

This little shrub is much dreaded by sheepmen, who claim that it poisons their flocks. It has been suggested that itwould be an excellent thing to have it widely planted as a means of reducing these bands of "hoofed locusts," as Mr. Muir terms them—these marauders who trample down so much beauty, and leave desolation everywhere in their wake.

Stems.—Six inches high.Leaves.—Six to eighteen lines long; dark green, sometimes variegated with white; leathery.Flowers.—One to three.Calyx.—Five-parted; white.Petals.—Five; waxen-white or pinkish.Stamens.—Ten. Filaments enlarged and hairy in the middle. Anthers two-celled; opening terminally.Ovary.—Five-celled. Style short. Stigma button-like.Hab.—The Middle Sierras and Mendocino County.

The prince's pine is a charming little plant, and may be found beneath the undergrowth in the great coniferous woods of the Sierras, where it sits demurely with bowed head, like some cloistered nun engaged with her own meditations. It has an exquisite perfume, like that of the lily of the valley.

The common prince's pine of the Eastern States—C. umbellata—is more rare with us, though it is found through somewhat the same range as the above. It is a more vigorous plant than the other, has from four to seven purplish flowers in the cluster, while its leaves are never spotted.

In the East, from the leaves of this species is manufactured the drug "chimaphila," which is valued as a tonic and astringent, also as a remedy for cataract.

Evergreen diœcious shrubs, one to twelve feet high, with angled or striate branches.Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; obovate; cuneate; obtuse; coarsely toothed; leathery; one inch or less long.Flower-heads.—Crowded at the ends of the branchlets; four lines long; one or two across; without ray-flowers.Involucres.—Oblong; of many imbricated scales.Sterile heads.—With funnel-form, five-lobed corollas.Fertile heads.—With filiform corollas, mixed with a dense white silky pappus, which soon elongates.Hab.—All along the Coast.

Back to Index Next