AS CALIFORNIA
WILD FLOWERS GROW

SUGGESTIONS TO NATUEE LOVEES

BY

KATHERINE CHANDLER

Author of

"Habits of California Plants"

" In the Reign Coyote: Folklore from the Pacific Coast "
"The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition"

1922

HARE WAGNER PUBLISHING CO.

San Francisco

California

Copyright 1922
By Katherine Chandler

To the Memory of my Mother, Mrs. W. S. Chandler,

whose explorations into the haunts of the wild flowers, both in the
San Francisco Bay region and in the mountains of Deer Park, Lake
Tahoe, have introduced many persons to the wonders and the delights
of Nature.

468458

PREFACE.

This book is published with the hope of interesting our citizens in
our native flora, both for their own pleasure and for its preservation.
It is not intended to be a Botany, although its suggestions, if carried
out, will surely lead to the use of botanies. Emphasis is laid on the
habits of the blossoms because they are the most attractive part of
the plant to us and the most important to it; but the habits of roots
and stems and leaves are also worthy of notice.

When we consider a plant as a living individual, carrying on a
definite life work, we will cease to destroy it heedlessly. Then, our
beautiful species will not be marked "extinct." Then, our forests
will be secured against fire, and then they will be lumbered scientifi-
cally so that future generations may still have their benefits in cli-
mate and in the resulting irrigation so necessary to the .agriculture
of California.

The cover of the book was designed and drawn by Mrs. Marie-
Therese Bryner of San Francisco. Many of the photographs were
taken by Mr. Antone J. Scares of Hayward, California. As it is
desirable to give each species its full detail, no attempt has been
made to have a scale of size.

I am indebted to Miss Alice Eastwood, the Botanist of the Cali-
fornia Academy of Sciences, for correct data as well as for the
initial training in observing the habits of plants; to the "Sunset
Magazine" and the "San Francisco Chronicle " for permission
to reprint fragments from their columns; to Dr. W. J. Beal for the
weight of the seeds of the Willow-Herb; and to my sister, Mabel G.
Chandler, for aid in correction.

KATHEEINE CHANDLER.
San Francisco, California.
January 27, 1922.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE I.
Some Simple Flowers.

California Poppy, Matilija Poppy, Eadish, Willow-Herb,

Mariposa , . . . 11

CHAPTER II.

Some Tubular Flowers .

Gilia, Silene, Wild Currant 30

CHAPTEE III.

Some Fantastic Flowers.
Bleeding Heart, Hound 's Tongue, Milkweed, Castilleja ... 42

CHAPTEE IV.
Some Grouped Flowers.

Lilac, Plantain, Barberry, Christmas Berry, Daisy 55

CHAPTEE V.

Some Flowers that like High Altitudes.

Snow Plant, Anemone, Primrose, White Heather, Magenta
Heather, Ledum, Gentian, Penstemon, Mimulus, Alpine
Lily, Wild Onion, Veratrum 72

CHAPTEE VI.

Some Specializing Flowers.

Garrya, Trees 106

CHAPTEE VII.
Some Plants with Healing Qualities.

Coffee Berry, Yerba Santa, Grindelia, Manzanita, Yerba Buena,
Penny Eoyal, Elder Berry, Sunflower, Wild Peony, Ever-
lasting, Mountain Birch, Eomero, Dogbane, Skunk Cab-
bage, Shin Leaf, Button Bush, Blue-eyed Grass, Bedstraw,
Clematis, Daturas, Zygadene, Larkspur, Holly-Leaved
Cherry, Azalea, White Night Shade, Phacelia, Monkshood,
Euphorbia 118

A* ."•:

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Barberry ; Frontispiece

Matilija 17

Radish 20

Willow-Herb . 23

Mariposa 27

Gilia 32

Silene . 33

Wild Currant , 36

Bleeding Heart 43

Hound's Tongue ,,....... 46

Milkweed 49

Castilleja 52

Ceanothus 56

Pl-antain ' 60

Christmas Berry 63

Christmas Berry 65

Seaside Daisy 69

Snow Plant 75

Anemone 78

Sierra Primrose . . - 80

White Heather 83

Magenta Heather . 84

Labrador Tea 86

Gentian . / 87

Penstemon , 90

Alpine Lily 95

Wild Onion 99

Veratrum 102

Garrya 107

Yerba Santa 120

Grindelia 121

Manzanita 123

Penny Royal . . , . ". . . . 127

Clematis 130

BARBERRY

Photographed by A. J. Scares

> ' ' ' t J J » ^ ,

AS CALIFORNIA
WILD FLOWERS GROW:

CHAPTER I.

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS.

As far as plants themselves are concerned, they
have but two objects in life: first, to produce the
best possible seed and second, to get this seed dis-
persed to a new environment in which it can make
a fair start. In exerting themselves to achieve these
objects, the plants have become a source of esthetic
enjoyment and economic profit to mankind. In the
course of centuries, the plants have learned that
cross-fertilization produces a superior seed, and so
they have evolved blossoms of marvelous tints and
shades to attract the eye of passing bird or insect.
And, lest color be not attraction enough, they have
added bowls of nectar whose fragrance on the sun-
kissed air will tempt the palate of any insect who
happens to be color blind.

Men today realize the advantage of promoting a
project by an advertising banquet. We set out

;12; ^:^S CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

palatable viands in a decorative setting, and some-
times our project wins adherents and sometimes it
does not. The plant, which is the oldest advertiser
on the earth, makes no such economic mistake. It
probably learned in the early ages that the wander-
ing bee would gladly sip of its sweets and then,
more often than not, depart without even a uthank
you."

The plant's one object in advertising its blossoms
is to get the pollen from one flower carried to the
stigma of -another. Often it ripens the anther of one
blossom before its stigma so that its own pollen
cannot possibly fertilize it; and it must have outside
aid. While advertising its banquet free to the world,
the plant takes very good care that any diner at its
table must involuntarily help in the purpose for
which he is invited.

One of the most skillful advertisers among our
native- plants is our State Flower, the California
Poppy. Up and down the State, far and wide, it
splashes its glorious color, typical of California
with its many days of golden sunshine and its golden
lodes awaiting but the industry of man to gladden
the surface of the earth. Not only does Poppy revel
in brilliant dye, but she weaves her material with a
satiny sheen that reflects the light from every angle.
No living creature can pass a Poppy bed without
his eye being caught by her beauty. We humans

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 13

stop and admire and exclaim. The insect makes a
closer investigation. He has an instinct that here is
some material good for him. And so there is. For
him alone does Poppy don her bright and lustrous
gown. For him, she plans even greater pleasures
than those of sight. Look at a Poppy, and you will
see how generous she is.

In the center of the four satiny petals are ar-
ranged the stamens, with their anthers full to the
brim of the pollen that to the bug is a toothsome
meal. As he feeds hungrily, he moves around and
jostles the stamens, and some pollen is dusted over
him. This he carries away when he leaves the blos-
som. His appetite is not appeased with a visit to
one flower so he dips into another. As he dives
down, the pollen on his head and body is brushed
against the waiting stigma, and it is quickly passed
down to the ovary where it converts the little ovules
into seeds. This is what Poppy has planned for.
This is why she has developed her color and her
sheen and her pollen — to make herself so attractive
that she will be sure to have helpful visitors.

She seems impatient at any delay in getting her
charms in view. Notice how she pushes her calyx
right off over her head when she is ready to spread
her splendid corolla. Then, later, this wonderful
corolla does the duty of the calyx. It would never
do to let cold or moisture touch the precious seed-

14 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

making parts, so, as soon as the direct sunshine
leaves her, the petals wrap themselves closely around
the center. As the flower grows older, you will
notice the individual petals curling at nightfall
around the stamens attached to them. This means
that the pistil has been fertilized, but there is still
a bountiful supply of good pollen to be dispensed.
It is only after her pollen has been all discharged
and her ovules fertilized that Poppy exposes her
heart to the shade, and then only for a brief period.
Soon she casts each satiny petal aside so that the
sunshine can pour directly on the seed-case and
ripen its contents.

If you pick off a petal, you see that some' stamens
come with it. The stigma does not come off, not
even when the seeds are fertilized. Watch a seed-
case develop. See the veins running up and down.
See the stigma forming the flat cap on its top. How
does Mrs. Poppy get her seeds dispersed? Take a
ripe pod in your hand and shake it. Little black
seeds scatter around. How do they get out? Look
under the rim of the cap between each vein. Poppy
believes in a pepper-shaker style of seed-case, so that
the gentlest zephyr will distribute some seeds; but
she discovered early that if she put the holes in the
top of the box, the rain and fog would seep in and
destroy her precious children. But there! That
rim of the stigma cap makes a protective roof, and

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 15

so under it is just the place to insure rain-proof seed
exits. If you do not believe that Poppy now has a
most efficient seed-case, just observe a new-turned
railroad embankment. This year it may have only
a few scattered plants, but next season it will be a
veritable carpet of gold.

If you care to read about flowers, you will find
that our Poppy has been more sung about than any
other of our California wild flowers. All visitors
have been impressed with its beauty. Indeed, its
botanical name, Eschscholtzia calif ornica, tells of a
scientist who visited here over a century ago. John
Friedrich von Eschscholtz was born in Dorpat,
Russia, November 12, 1793, and died there May 19,
1834. He became a physician and naturalist, and as
such accompanied the Russian scientific voyages
around the world in 1815-1824. He was in Califor-
nia at two different intervals. He wrote so enthusi-
astically of this golden flower, new to European
eyes, that botanists named it for him, and added the
name of its birthplace for the species.

About fifty years before the Russians entered San
Francisco Bay, some Spanish sailors, approaching
the southern coast of the State, saw the blaze of the
poppies on the hills and exclaimed, "The altar
cloth of San Pasqual! The altar cloth of San Pas-
qual!" This referred to the history of Saint Pascal,
who was a favorite of the Spanish peasants. He

1.6 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

was born in Aragon, Spain, in 1540. As a child,
poverty made it necessary that he tend his flocks day
and night, without relief, so that he never had op-
portunity to go inside a church to worship God as
his heart desired. Living ever under the open skies,
he seemed to absorb that simple faith that led the
Shepherds of the East to the Manger at Bethlehem.
This faith taught him that if his duty prevented his
offering his devotion before an altar erected by man,
his prayers on the pasture slopes would be as accept-
able in the eyes of the Almighty. So, as he tended
his sheep, he would seek a bed of beautiful wild-
flowers and kneel there to offer his homage. His
pious devotions attracted the attention of the Fran-
ciscans; and he was educated and later became a
devout son of Saint Francis d'Asis. Book learning
did not dim his simple faith, and he devoted his life
to helping the Spanish peasants whose duties called
them to an outdoor existence. As he walked among
the shepherds, he often said Mass on the hill slopes
with a bed of wildflowers for an altar. So, the
Spanish sailors, seeing the poppy beds ablaze on
the California coast, naturally exclaimed, "There is
the altar cloth of San Pasqual!" They landed
from the little vessels on which they had suffered
many hardships, and offered up Mass right amongst
the Poppies, giving thanks for a safe delivery from
the perils of the ocean and praises that they were

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 17

led to a land of such beautiful blossoming. So our
California Poppy was instrumental in the first set-
tling of our State. The name of San Pasqual,
which is the Spanish for Saint Pascal, still lingers
in San Diego County.

The Spanish Californians sometimes called the
Poppy "Copa de Oro," which means "cup of gold,"
a most appropriate title. Sometimes, they did just
as we do, called it the name of its garden sisters,
"Poppy," which in Spanish is "Amapola" and
"Dormidera." This last
name means "sleepiness,"
and refers to the nar-
cotic qualities for which
the Poppy family is fa-
mous.

Our State Flower has
a sister, also a native
daughter, that is thought
by many to be the most
b e a u t i ful wildflower
California produces.
This is the M a t i 1 i j a
Poppy, whose blossom

, - , . MATILIJA POPPY

and habits are quite un-
like those of its golden relation. This plant
grows tall, sometimes to fifteen feet, and its white
blossoms spread out as wide as nine inches. They

18 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

are of the loveliest crepe, plaited in softest folds,
around a central globe of crowded yellow stamens.
While the California has but two sepals and four
petals, the Matilija has three sepals and six petals.
They are following a rule of the large family to
which they belong, the Papavaraceae, that the parts
of the calyx shall be half as many as those of the
corolla.

While the California Poppy springs up after the
first rains thrill the earth, Matilija does not bloom
until late spring or summer. Even then she fears
a cold snap, for she covers her sepals with warm
hairs for protection. However, when she is ready
to unfurl her snowy petals, she pushes off this hairy
calyx in the same way Californica does her smooth
one. The blossoms remain open several days, and,
as they wave aloft, they attract many visitors. One
glance at the heart of Matilija will show you that
they are richly rewarded for any services they ren-
der. The seed-case is constructed on the pepper-
shaker plan, and carried so high, it works most suc-
cessfully.

The name "Matilija" is the Indian title for the
river in Ventura County along whose banks the
Spanish first found this Poppy. Its botanical name
is Romneya trichocalyx. Romneya is for an Irish
astronomer, Thomas Romney Robinson, of Armagh
Observatory. Trichocalyx refers to the calyx being
formed of three parts.

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 19

The Romneya Coulteri resembles the Matilija so
closely that it is often called Matilija. It does differ
in some ways. Its branches come up more firmly
from the base, and its sepals are smooth, with no
hairs. As every Poppy has the habit of pushing off
its sepal cap when it is ready to bloom, people do
not generally notice its calyx. The Romneya Coul-
teri blossom looks exactly like that of the Romneya
trichocalyx, so it is little wonder we confuse them.
Coulteri is for Dr. Thomas Coulter, who botanized
in Mexico for many years, and who collected the
wildflowers of California in 1831 and 1832. His
collection was sent to Trinity College, Dublin. After
his death, the collection was arranged by Professor
W. H. Harvey, the curator of the herbarium of
Trinity College, and it is still to be found there.

All three of these poppies are widely cultivated
today. The Eschscholtzia loses heart when trans-
ported from its native land and blooms paler and
weaker and less satiny. It has been evolved into
various shades of pink and red, but under cultiva-
tion, it never matches in beauty its glorious wild
abandon. The two Romneyas retain their native
qualities and are handsome additions to garden or
park. Today we value our poppies chiefly for their
beauty, but the Spanish Californians used to fry the
leaves of californica in olive oil for a hair tonic,
and the Indians before them used the leaves as

20 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

greens. Many of the family are raised in Europe
for the seeds, from which is extracted an oil as sweet
as olive oil and quite as useful for food purposes.
The seeds are also good to eat with bread. Perhaps
you have relished the "poppy bread" made by our
French bakeries. Among the ancients, the poppy
was sacred to Ceres, the goddess in Roman mythol-
ogy who had supervision over tillage and harvests.

A plant that takes no chances on an insect's going
astray while seeking its nectar is the Radish. It
spreads out its four petals in the form of a cross
and then interlines them with little paths leading

down to its feast. These
lines are called "honey
paths," and they are
found in many insect-
summoning flowers. The
petals of the Radish
diminish into claws, so
that the visitor has little
-interference in satisfy-
ing his hunger; and,
either coming or going,
he is sure to knock
against the stamens. At
the slightest touch, the
RADISH anthers pour out their

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 21

pollen, and Mr. Bug has his head or his back or his
legs "powdered with gold." His appetite is never
satisfied with the feast set in one flower, so off he
journeys into the next to devour its store. As he fum-
bles around, some of the pollen he carries is sure to
be rubbed on the stigma. The stigma, you know, is
the top of the pistil in which lie little cells waiting
for the pollen to convert them into seeds.

In the Radish, the seeds grow very quickly. As
the pistil lengthens out into a purple-tinted pod,
they swell it out at regular intervals, making it re-
semble a string of beads. Do you think this con-
struction helps get the seeds scattered? Watch
them. The botanical name of the Radish, "Rapha-
nus," comes from two Greek words, "quickly" and
"appear." If you will watch the speed with which
the plant takes hold of a waste field, you will see
that it has lost none of its energy in the passing cen-
turies. ."Sativus" the name of this species, indicates
something "common."

Run your fingers over the leaf of the Radish.
Taste it. Do not the feeling and the flavor suggest
to you why the plant is not eaten up when young
by the herb-eating animals? If a plant does not
protect itself from the ground up, it may lose its
opportunity of making seed; and no self-respecting
plant would do that.

The pungency of the Radish that is disagreeable

22 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

to animals makes it valuable to man. Its whole
family — the Cruciferae, from its petals being ar-
ranged like a cross — is useful, giving us many of the
vitamines now considered so necessary to our vital-
ity and also the principal condiments which trans-
form ordinary foods into palatable dishes. In Cali-
fornia, there are many Cruciferae, and they are
worth while studying. Note the similarity in the
shape of their blossoms and the number and ar-
rangement of the stamens and the differences in the
shapes of their seed-cases. Which shaped pod will
get the new seeds farthest away from the mother
plant? Several of our Cruciferae are really natives
of the Eastern Continent; but, through the efficiency
of their seed-cases, they accompanied the human
pioneers to this Western land. The Radish is one of
these seventeenth century immigrants, and in the
genial climate of California its descendants have
increased in size and in beauty.

One of the best plants in which to study the pro-
cess of cross-fertilization is the Willow-Herb. The
blossoms wave at the top of the stem, usually a
bright magenta which can be seen at some distance.
The four petals open broadly, disclosing the eight
stamens standing up bravely, with their firm little
anthers on top; while the undeveloped style and
stigma remain crouched in the center. The anthers
ripen in the sunshine and pour out their pollen on

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 23

Photographed by A. J. Soares
WILLOW HERB

24 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

investigating visitors. As they empty, the style
grows erect, with its stigma a gray bulb on the top.
When the anthers are quite withered, the style
pushes quickly beyond them, and the stigma opens
into four whitish lobes sensitive to any pollen that
may touch them. The seed pods swell quickly; and
their long, slender lines, tinged with magenta, make
the plant still beautiful after the flowers have
passed.

When the seeds are mature, the pod splits open
at the top, curving back into four sections. In each
section is a row of fleece-crowned seeds, all eager to
sail off in the unknown air. The pod curves back
gradually, so that all the seeds are not exposed at
once. When the top ones are carried away by a
breeze or scattered by some animal stirring against
the lower branches of the plant, the pod curves fur-
ther back, allowing a new set to be freed. The
snowy silky hairs are about a half inch long, and the
tips of the hairs are slightly glued to the walls of the
pod, some to one side, some to the other, so that the
seed hangs between. The seeds are so light that it
is estimated that it would take 30,000, hairs and all,
to weigh as much as a white bean. With so little
weight to carry, it is not surprising that the para-
chutes cover long distances from the mother plant.

It is this habit of the seeds that has given Willow-
Herb her other common name, Fireweed. When a

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 25

country has been laid bare by flames, the next season
the Fireweed springs up like magic. The tuft-
buoyed seeds have been searching for just such a
naked land to settle in. Plant societies have just as
much competition as human societies have; and
they, too, seek to lessen the struggle for existence by
emigration. It is true that the individual plant
starts off to make its fortune at an earlier stage than
does the individual human; but, when once landed
at its destination, through the unconscious kindness
of bird or animal or wind, its struggles parallel
those of the human pioneer. If it be easily discour-
aged, it is driven out of existence; but, if it can
adapt itself to its new environment, its race will
soon have control of the surrounding territory. The
Fireweed is of adventurous stock. It is ever seeking
uninhabited regions; and when other settlers move
in and life becomes crowded, off it hazards again.
The family has traveled into the Arctic regions, and
explorers write of using its leaves as greens to give
variety to their menu. It certainly is bitter enough
to be a good tonic. In Kamchatka, they extract a
sugar by boiling the whole plant, and use this as a
foundation to make an ale and a vinegar.

The name Willow-Herb, as well as the botanical
name of the species, angustifolia, comes from the
shape of the leaves. Epilobium, the genus, is from
two Greek words, "upon" and "pod," and you read-
ily see that this well describes the blossom habit.

26 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

A flower that bees and butterflies and human be-
ings all seem to admire alike is the Mariposa. We
delight in its exquisite hues and beautiful shape.
The insects are attracted by the color, and they find
the simple cup an easy vessel from which to sip
their sought-for breakfast. The Mariposa is most
generous in her hospitality. Not only does she tint
her cup rose or yellow or lilac, but she adds great
splotches of maroon or brown or yellow, or perhaps
bands of gold, or both splotches and bands in one
blossom, with dots added for extra measure. All
this decoration is developed just to indicate to the
visitor where her honey lies. She does not set the
feast out simply in open plates. She has learned
that visitors like variety. So she digs little pits for
her nectar; and, to add a touch of that mystery
which quickens the desires of all individuals, she
covers them closely with a curtain of thick hairs. If
you think that the insects do not respond to this
enticement, just count the number of kinds you see
enter a Mariposa any sunny day. Of course, as they
push aside the curtain, they are dusted with the
pollen from the six upright stamens. This they
carry to the next flower, and so Madame Mariposa
is rewarded for her munificence.

As you see, the Mariposa's parts are in threes,
three sepals, three petals, six stamens, and a three-

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 27

Photographed by A. J. Scares
MARIPOSA

28 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

angled seed-case. It belongs to the Liliaceae, or
ly family. Have you noticed how careful the
.riposa is of her pollen? See how the petals fold
tightly unless the sun is shining. How does she
scatter her seeds? Do the plants that come from
seeds bloom the first year? Have you ever reckless-
ly pulled up a Mariposa? What was on the end?
You see by pulling up the plant you have not only
stopped the life of this year's Mariposa, but you
have taken up the bulb which would produce a new
individual. In gathering Mariposa, do take a
scissors along and cut the stems. Then you have the
enjoyment of their beauty and have not injured their
bulbs.

"Mariposa" is the Spanish word for "butterfly,"
and was given this beautiful flower by the Spaniards
who settled California in 1769. Mariposa County
gets its title from the myriads of these lilies that
gladden its acres. The genus to which the Mariposa
belongs — Calochortus — includes some of our most
beautiful native flowers. In other countries they
have been introduced into gardens and are among
the most prized of cultivated bulbous plants. The
name, Calochortus, is from the ancient Greek,
meaning "beautiful grass," which you can see is
most appropriate. The name of this species, pur-
purasc ens, simply means "purplish," from the tint of

SOME SIMPLE FLOWERS 29

its petals. Many of the Calochortus family are not
so simply shaped as is the Mariposa. Note the
Fairy Lanterns, the Pussy's Ears, the Golden Lan-
terns. Whatever their shape, they are all remark-
ably handsome. One or more species is found in
every locality in the State, and any Californian has
an opportunity to study at first hand their beguiling
ways with insects.

30 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

CHAPTER II.

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS.

Some plants do not arrange their floral envelopes
simply, as do the Poppy, the Radish, the Willow-
Herb, and the Mariposa. They have learned that
certain small insects specialize in burglary, creep-
ing in between petals, robbing the pantry, and slink-
ing out without carrying even one grain of pollen
to pay for their meal. The plants are not encourag-
ing thieves nor beggars. They are willing to do
their part, but they wish the other individual to
carry his share of the burden of life. So, many
plants have joined their parts into one continuous
whole with only the one entrance. Any visitor that
comes to them must pass the anthers and the stigma.

The Gilia has five petals, but it joins their lower
parts together into a funnel shape and spreads out
their tops into five lobes. It attaches its five stamens
to the inside of this tube, and no bug can get down
that passage or come out of it without receiving
some pollen on its head. Then, as it partakes of the
honey in the next flower, this pollen falls on the
stigma, and the Gilia is repaid for her ingenuity in
building.

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS 31

The Gilia is found throughout the State, but it
varies in size, in color, in arrangement. Some are
the tiniest of blossoms, regular fairy nosegays in
pink, white, lilac, salmon-hue, and they grow so
low and so thick that they form a beauteous carpet
for Mother Earth. Others grow taller, with more
showy flowers. The Scarlet Gilia of the Sierras,
sometimes called the Scarlet Fuchsia, is very hand-
some and also very interesting in its growth. It
covers its leaves and stems with a sticky substance
so that little crawling bugs have learned to keep
away from it. It hangs out its scarlet tubes loosely
so that they wave on each stirring breath of air and
beacon to the winged butterfly or the humming-
bird. These can send their tongues down the flower
tube and feast; but, in doing so, they will get some
pollen on their heads to be carried to a neighboring
Gilia. The Scarlet Gilia is not afraid of the first
cold snaps in Autumn, but just colors her leaves red
and reddish brown, as if she thought warmth lay in
color, and goes on sending out new flowers at the
ends of her many little branches. Her seeds, formed
in the cooling days, are very hardy. When scattered
on even rocky slopes, they lie under the snow all
winter, and in summer hasten on with the work of
their species. No seed seems to be wasted, for in a
few summers a whole hillside becomes glorious with
their coloration.

32 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

The Gilias do not all bloom in the daylight. For
instance, one whose common name is Evening Snow
prefers to attract a night moth to help her in her

fertilization. She rolls
up her petals in the
day-time, but as the
afternoon n e a r s its
close, she becomes sud-
denly alert. She un-
furls her five white
banners and sends out
great whirls of her fra-
grance. After the sun
sets, the moths start out
seeking their meals.
Both fragrance and
ghostly white blossoms
guide them; and they

GILIA

co-operate, even though
unconsciously, with Mrs. Gilia.

The correct pronunciation of the genus name,
Gilia, is He'li-a, its first syllable sounding exactly
like the first in Gila River or Gila monster. The
flower was named in honor of a Spanish botanist,
Felipe Louis Gil, who lived in the last half of the
eighteenth century, just at the time when our State
was being settled by white men. We in California
should be careful of the pronunciation of our Span-

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS

33

ish names, as the history of the State is bound up
with them. The species of Gilia used in illustration
is dichotorna, which means "two-forked," from the
way in which the flower stems branch out on either
side of the stalk.

The Silene makes a very positive objection to
fee(|ig^;; insects who do not return services. She
early learned that ants were very skillful in extract-
ing sweets without paying toll, so she reconstructed
her plant from the ground up to impede their
climbs to her blossoms. She developed her nodes
into comparative mountains, and covered herself
with soft hairs. When
that did not daunt
them, she evolved
glands that would se-
crete a bitter, sticky
substance and deposit it
all along the stems and
leaves. Now, woe to
that ant that attempts
to mount a Silene. It is
as difficult as for a hu-
man being to loosen
himself from the quick-
sands. Even with this
safeguard, Silene
was not satisfied that her seed-making parts were

SILENE

34 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

secure from spoliation. To make security doubly
sure, she united her five sepals into a tough tubular
calyx, with the outside both hairy and sticky. It is
inflated below to look formidable to tiny eyes look-
ing upward, but it converges at the top into five
points which mark the apexes of the five original
sepals. Lest this calyx appear too forbidding to
guests she wishes to welcome, she has ten prominent
brownish veins marking the way up to the opening.
While the stem, leaf, and calyx are developed to
repel insects, the corolla is formed to attract. Thus
Silene announces definitely that she wishes creatures
that fly, and not those that merely crawl. The
corolla is beautifully fashioned. Each petal has a
narrow limb inside the calyx, but it spreads out into
a broad claw on reaching the light. The claw has
a cleft in the center, and also a little tooth on each
outer side; and just where it leaves the calyx, it
waves an upright banner. These five banners, stand-
ing close to each other in a ring, are called the
crown of the corolla; and they are there to guide
the flying creature down to the tube in which lies
the nectar he desires. Inside the petals rise the ten
stamens, each flaunting a pollen box; and inside
them, and lower down, are the three styles and their
stigmas. The corolla tube is not wide, so when
fumbling around, whether for nectar or for pollen,
the insect will get some dust on his body and carry.

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS 35

it away to the next flower. After the ovules are
fertilized, the petals fall away, but the tough calyx
persists as a protection to the maturing seeds.

The common name of the Silene, Catch-Fly, is
readily recognized as appropriate, and so is its
other popular name, Campion, which means "Field
Flower." Sometimes it is called Wild Pink, be-
cause it belongs to the world-wide family of Pinks,
the Caryophylleae. Silene, the older botanists
say, comes from Silenus, the Satyr in Greek mythol-
ogy, who was the constant companion of Bacchus,
probably because these revelers laid plans to catch
the weak through their appetites; but Professor
Jepson gives the derivation of the name from sialon,
the Greek for "saliva," referring to its viscidity.
Verecunda, the name of the species here shown,
means "modest," and well describes its unobtrusive-
ness.

The Wild Currant, which roams California from
the seaside to the high Sierras, arranges its floral
envelope in a tube with the tops spread out. At the
Coast, this shrub sends out its blossom after the
first rains, so that usually one can gather a great
bunch before Thanksgiving. The individual flower,
if taken away from its group cluster, looks very
much like the individual blossom of the Trailing
Arbutus or Mayflower of the East — that delicate
beauty which always arouses the enthusiasm of the

36 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

poet of Spring. It is but an accidental resemblance,
as the plants do not belong to the same family and
have quite different habits; yet our Currant, burst-
ing out as it does when most members of the Floral
Kingdom are still sleeping, brings to us the same
thrill of joy in the awakening life of Nature as does
the Mayflower to the East.

The Currant is illustrative of California's topsy-

turvy calendar. Along
the Coast, as soon as the
early rains vivify the
earth, be they in Octo-
ber or in December, the
Currant sends out her
new leaves of delicate
green and her graceful
tassels of pink and white
to indicate that, in spite
of the almanac's an-
nouncing Winter, it is
really Spring on the
Western Shore. Then,
in the Sierras, as soon as

WILD CURRANT

the JUIie and JUlY SUI1

has lifted the heavy

snow blanket, out bursts the Currant of that altitude
in her delicate green and gladsome pink to proclaim
that, while the almanac may call it Summer, it is
really Spring in our Western Mountains.

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS 37

The Currant's leaves send out a spicy fragrance
that has earned it the name of Incense Bush. This
summons the birds and bugs from afar. Then, the
little pink flower, with its five stamens and two-
parted style, is compensated for her early ventur-
ing. Notice how her tube grows darker after the
seed is formed. When does this tube fall off? No-
tice the leaves, their upper and lower surfaces;
their coating in the cold and in the warm months;
the way they are attached to the stems; their differ-
ences in appearance at different ages.

The Currant is ideal for cultivation, as it responds
to the slightest effort to improve its conditions. In
England, it is planted in the gardens and parks as
an ornamental shrub. Even in a foreign land, it
clings to its old-home habits and bursts into bloom
ahead of any of its neighbors. Wherever it dwells,
be it at sea level or on moutain slope, in its native
West or transported to the Atlantic Shores, it seems
to have a psychic sense of the approach of Spring,
and it rushes forth to welcome her before more
materialistic plants have even heard her approach-
ing footsteps. The Currant's genus name, Ribes,
comes from the mystic Arabian, which perhaps por-
trays a quality of the race. The species, sangui-
neum, describes the color of the flower buds.

An interesting fact connected with California
Flora is that many of the specimens from which the

38 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

species were named are still perfectly preserved in
the British Museum in London. The British atten-
tion was called to the rich array of plants iri Cali-
fornia when Vancouver visited our shores in 1792,
when he was in the Pacific to act as England's rep-
resentative to settle the Nootka difficulty. Because
that commission of English and Spaniards arranged
a settlement of their controversy without going to
war, they had more thought to devote to the arts
and sciences of Peace. Hence, they kept records
of the plants and animals of the foreign countries.

The botanist of Vancouver's Expedition was Ar-
chibald Menzies, a surgeon of the Royal Navy. He
had visited the Northwest Coast of America in 1779
and had become interested in the flowers. Vancou-
ver wrote in his report: "For the purpose of pre-
serving such new or uncommon plants as he might
deem worthy of a place amongst His Majesty's very
valuable collection of exotics at Kew, a glazed
frame was erected on the after part of the quarter
deck for the reception of those he might have an
opportunity of collecting." Menzies collected
three sets of California plants, one of which went
to Kew Gardens, one to the British Museum, and
one to the herbarium of the Botanical Society in
Edinburgh. As he was the first scientist to make
known many of our plants, his name is applied to
a number of the California species. One of the

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS 39

Baby-Blue-Eyes is named in honor of him, Nemo-
phi I a Menziesii.

From the time of Vancouver on, the British col-
lection of California plants has been continuously
added to, so that today, if a student wishes to study
the "type" of a plant, he goes to London for many
of them. When a scientist collects a new plant, he
classifies it and studies it; and, if it does not belong
to any known species, he considers it a new plant
and names it. This original specimen is called the
"type" of that plant. It seems wonderful today,
when all the scientists that collected them are long
dead and most of them unknown, that such frail
little plants as Baby-Blue-Eyes and Mimulus are as
good specimens to study the type from as they were
when picked over a hundred years ago.

Under the Spanish and Mexican Governments,
the capital of California was Monterey, and every
vessel had to enter that port and register at the
Custom House before it received a permit to visit
other places on the Coast. For this reason, most of
the Coast plants gathered by visiting scientists were
taken from the vicinity of Monterey, and so Mon-
terey is known among botanists as the "type region"
of California.

In addition to being the "type region/' Monterey
holds other and more important claims to the inter-
est of the botanist. It is the region where plants

40 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

from the North stopped in their progress south and
where plants of the South stopped in their advance
north, so that it is the home of both northern: and
southern species. Then, too, in it still are found
plants which have ceased to exist in a wild state
anywhere else on the surface of the earth. There
are peculiar species of the Ceanothus and Manza-
nita and of other plants that grow nowhere else.

The best known plant endemic to the region is the
Monterey Cypress, whose native habitat is only in
two groves along that coast. The grove at Cypress
Point extends for two miles along the water and for
sixty rods inland; the one at Point Lobos is much
smaller. The Monterey Cypress natively is the
most restricted of any coniferous plant in the world.
This seems peculiar when one knows how plants
disperse their seeds so broadcast, and one sees that
each Monterey Cypress cone produces about one
hundred and fifty healthy seeds, all light-winged
and easy to be carried by the wind. It seems even
more strange when one sees how the Monterey
Cypress is scattered over the world under cultiva-
tion. The seeds in open-air nursery beds germinate
in two or three weeks, and the seedlings flourish like
weeds. Its seeds were first taken abroad in 1838;
and before the end of the century, it was the most
widely cultivated cone-bearer of Southern and
Western Europe, South America and Australia,

SOME TUBULAR FLOWERS 41

Its closely crowded leaves, developed to withstand
the sea winds of its native shore, make it an admira-
ble hedge or windbreak to protect more delicate
species.

42 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

CHAPTER III.

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS.

Some plants, in developing their blossoms so that
the bug and the bird must aid them, have achieved
fantastic shapes. Just notice the Bleeding Heart,
with its symmetrical roseate flower. The calyx is
inconspicuous, its two sepals soon falling off. The
four petals are in two pairs, quite differently shaped.
The outer pair form the red heart which attracts
the insect; the inner pair is spoon-like, with the
tops of the bowls joined, forming a protecting dome
over the anthers and stigma. Separate the pairs of
petals with a pin and see the construction for your-
self.

Is it possible for a bug to crawl down to the
dishes of honey without getting its head "powdered
with gold"? And, with such ravenous appetites as
these little creatures seem to possess, it is about cer-
tain that he will visit the next dangling red heart.
Then, his powdered head will brush the two lobes
of the stigma, and he has paid for his refreshments.
Watch the insects that linger around the Bleeding
Heart. Can they feast from her table without going
inside? See how the plant waves the blossoms on

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 43

Photographed by A. J. Soares
BLEEDING HEART

44 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

top of long, naked stems so that no leaves will hide
them. Does that mean that the visitors will come on
wings? Note how each blossom hangs its head, and
how weak its little stem is. Is it likely birds try
to get its honey?

Observe the leaves. See how they are dissected.
Bleeding Heart does not care for much warmth.
She makes her leaf surface smaller by cutting it into
fern-like divisions. They absorb less sunshine than
if they were spread out their original breadth.
Does Bleeding Heart thrive in the sun or in the
shade? Does she die when her blossoms and leaves
have disappeared?

The botanical name of our Bleeding Heart is
Dicentra formosa. ^Dicentra" is from two Greek
words, "twice" and " a spur"; and u formosa" means
beautiful. A sister, also a native of California, is
Dicentra chrysantha, the Golden Dicentra. While
not so beautiful as the Bleeding Heart in the wild
gardens, this becomes handsome under cultivation.
A relative in the Eastern States is commonly known
as "Dutchman's Breeches," from the shape of the
corolla.

Another California plant that bears a Greek name
and that has evolved an odd corolla, is the Cyno-
glgssum grande. The common name, Hound's
Tongue, .is an exact translation of the Greek Cyno-
glossum, and they are derived from the shape and

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 45

texture of the green leaves at the base of the flower
stalk. "Grande/' every Californian knows, means
"large," so called because our native species is un-
usually handsome.

The Hound's Tongue is one of the early bloom-
ers, either at the coast or in the mountains. Notice
the leaves when the plant is young. They are cov-
ered with the finest, softest of hairs, making a gar-
ment as warm as a human mother would use to
envelope her new baby. Aside from protection from
cold, perhaps Hound's Tongue had another reason
in producing this pubescence. Her first leaves are
pinkish and must look appetizing to herbivorous
animals seeking a springtime meal. If the leaves
were quite naked, they might be devoured whole.
The hairs make eating uncomfortable and the bitter
taste makes them unpalatable so they are left to
guard the flower stalk hidden in their midst.

A little warm sunshine acts as magic on this stalk,
and it raises its flower head towards the sky as if to
absorb the Heaven's own hues. Its buds are colored
the softest pink of the early dawn, and its flowers
the intense azure of the mountain sky when ob-
served from the floor of a deep canyon. Her suc-
cess in dyeing her blossom should satisfy Hound's
Tongue; but, as a matter of fact, she learned centu-
ries ago that her revel in blue made her too incon-
spicuous under the immense cerulean arch.

46 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

Photographed by A. J. Scares
HOUND'S TONGUE

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 47

This would never do. The greatest injustice a
plant can do its descendants is to have inconspicu-
ous flowers, unless it develops some substitute
attraction; and Hound's Tongue had no idea of
shirking her duty. Loving the sky, she did not wish
to change her color, so she copied its beauties still
further by developing an arch of white at the inner
curve of each petal. We notice at once the effective-
ness of this color contrast, and so does the insect.
He may be soaring under the heavenly blue until
he is surfeited with that shade, but his eyes are
caught by the five white crests, and down he swoops.
Or he may be climbing up with the sky filling his
vision, when a sudden glimpse of those gleaming
crests will divert his footsteps. Once under the
snowy arch, the same process goes on. As he feeds,
he is powdered with pollen, which he carries to an-
other blossom.

Having so arduously developed her beautiful
blossom to secure cross fertilization, Hound's
Tongue takes no chances on her seed being wasted.
On each of the four nutlets that are ripened in her
ovary, she has evolved numerous hooks. No mov-
ing thing can pass her, be it sheep or be it human,
without these little barbs catching in his covering.
Perhaps you have had the experience of brushing
them off your clothes. That is exactly why Hound's
Tongue so fashioned them. Her seeds are sure to

48 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

be carried away from the parent plant to a new
soil where they can more easily carry on her project.
The Milkweed, too, forms a curious floral envel-
ope for her seed-making parts. She has the calyx
and corolla regular, with five parts each. She has
five stamens, one attached to the base of each petal ;
but, instead of having them grow up free as the
stamens in the Buttercup, she unites their filaments
into a tube which encloses the pistil. At the top
of each stamen is an anther with two cells, each cell
containing a flattened, pear-shaped mass of waxy
pollen. The two pollen pears of the same anther
are not hung together; but the left one is hung on
the same tiny stalk as is the right one of the next
anther. So there are five sets hanging, each of two
waxy pears, one pear from each of the two adjacent
anthers. The stigma is connected with these anthers
but is above them. Obviously, the Milkweed needs
some insect aid. So, she has developed a fascinating
set of nectaries, or honey glands. Five hoods are
placed in a ring between the corolla and the sta-
mens, and each hood carries a horn curving inward.
These hoods are the conspicuous part of the flower.
Examine them, and your respect for the Milkweed
Will mount high.

goOf 'course, the bee dives into the hood head first
to get the nectar. The waxy pollen pears stick to
his legs and are carried to the next blossom. As

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS

49

his mouth is down at the honey plates, his legs wave
above and hit the stigma. You always find bees
around Milkweed. You can see two in this illus-
tration. So often have I
found them asleep in the
Milkwedd flowers in the
early morning before the
sun has warmed the air
that I wonder if there
be a narcotic in the nec-
tar. Perhaps not. May-
be the feast is so deli-
cious that the bees sim-
ply forget to go home.
I have picked the stalks
with the sleeping crea-
tures on many times and
carried them into the
house. When the warmer air roused them from
their naps, there was a great commotion. Bang!
they buzzed against one window. Bang! against
another. Scold and grumble until they find the
open door and return to freedom.

Observe the leaves and the bud coverings of the
Milkweed. Why are they so wooly? Do you find
any holes bored in the leaves? Do you think the
insects like the juice? Milkweed, like Hound's
Tongue, has made ample preparation for the dis-

MILKWEED

SO AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

semination of her seeds, but in quite a different way.
She crowns each seed with a tuft of silky hairs so
that it can float off on the air. Which seed gets the
surest transportation, the one that depends upon the
air or the one that hooks on some moving creature?

The common name, Milkweed, explains itself.
The botanical name of the genus, Asclepias, is
given in honor of Esculapius, the physician of the
Greeks, who first appears in Homer as a human
being and later enters their mythology as the God
of Healing. His daughters were Hygieia and Pan-
aceia and Aegle. From the first, we have today
"Hygiene," the science of Health; from the second,
"Panacea," a remedy for all diseases; and for the
third, there is named a family of Indian plants with
high medicinal value. We might surmise from its
title that Milkweed has curative qualities. Perhaps
it has, but, as a matter of every-day fact, the foliage
of our California species is poisonous to animals.
Perhaps this quality is what makes the bees drowzy.
Study the Milkweed of your locality. You may dis-
cover some fact important to the science of healing.

One of the California wild flowers you know
best, wherever you may live, is the Castilleja or
Paintbrush. She, too, has evolved a peculiar
floral envelope. Perhaps you have been thinking
that all the brightly colored part was the flower.
Just examine the stem carefully, and you will see

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 51

that the lower colored parts are not blossoms, but
just bracts.

<• The Castilleja decided to group her small flowers
near each other, but she saw no need of multiplying
blossoms just to attract color-loving eyes; so, instead,
she dyed the leaf-like bracts that they might be seen
afar and serve as signals. Then she built the calyx
into the tube and rouged it. She evolved the corolla
like the calyx, but that proved too simple. So, she
flattened it out and then divided it into two parts.
The back part is a long beak-like shape, which
stoops over and encloses the four stamens and the
style; the front lip is short and small, with three
little teeth on its upper surface. The insect creeps
in over the short lip and works his way down to the
honey. As he comes out, he gets entangled in the
upper lip and hits the stigma first and leaves the
pollen he carries from another blossom. He also
gets a new dusting to take away with him. Observe
the various blossoms on the same stalk. Do the sta-
mens and pistils mature at the same time? In some
of the flowers, you find the style with its stigma
hanging out of the floral tube. What does that
mean?

Some botanists claim that Castilleja is a para-
sitic creature, feeding on the roots of other plants.
What do you think about that? If you study the
plant carefully, you may be able to clear its name
of this charge. It certainly has none of the ear-

52 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

marks of a parasite. It has a root of its own, and it
has green leaves, showing that it does some work
for itself. Study those leaves. Do you ever fmdr
any one plant upon which every leaf has the same
shape? Is there any reason for their deep veining?
Or for their silky down? Have you noticed the
many seeds in the case? How are these seeds dis-
persed? Is that the reason the Castilleja soon covers
an acreage?

Castilleja is named in honor of a Spanish botanist,

Castillejo. The species
shown here is parviflora,
meaning "poor flowers."
They are smaller than
many of their sisters, but
even this species often
grows large and beauti-
ful. Perhaps the type
from which the species
was named was picked
at the end of summer
in some dry situation.
You know, from your
own observation, that
the earlier blossoms of
every species grow more
magnificent than the later ones. If you keep pick-
ing the blossoms, the plant will send out new ones

CASTILLEJA

SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 53

so as to secure seed, and she makes them as fine
as she can. Some persons never pick their cultivated
flowers, thinking they prefer them on the plant;
but this simply shortens the period in which they can
enjoy the blooms. The more you pick, the harder
the plant will work to carry out its own object.

Castilleja is not at all poverty-stricken in tints
and shades of pigment. When Nature dips into her
paint box to dress her floral children, she uses red
less frequently than any other color; but she loses
her restraint when she comes to California. She
has given us a greater percentage of red blossoms
than she has bestowed upon any other land. She
seems to have given Castilleja free play with the
primary colors, only bidding her to keep as much
a? possible to the colors of Spain. And well has
Castilleja done her part. Along the Coast, she
blooms out in every combination of red and yellow
imaginable — cardinal, scarlet, yellow orange, burnt
orange — with all their shades and tints. In the
Si%erras, she not only wears all these hues, but she
adds a dip of blue in the mixing and comes out in
crimson, carnelian, magenta, vermillion — lovelier
shades than ever Paris milliner invented. At about
6,500 feet above sea level, Castilleja will cover
mountain slopes with such beauty that one can sim-
ply stand open-mouthed in admiration. And each
plant pushes upward with such energy that they

54 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

often reach over four feet. Then, too, they have a
great love of living. While there is a bit of ground
left exposed, Castilleja ornaments it. Even after the
first autumn snows have come and gone, as first
snows usually do, Castilleja bravely waves a dash
of color, not very large in the late season, but enough
to show her spirit. Because of the cheer Castilleja
brings to California, in all our altitudes, in all our
climates, I dislike to think of her being accused of
being a parasite. Perhaps, by a careful study of its
habits, you can acquit this courageous creature of
this charge.

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 55

CHAPTER IV.

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS.

A handsome shrub that is widely distributed over
the State is the Ceanothus or California Lilac.
Every one has admired it, as it adds color to the
landscape, sometimes a vivid blue, sometimes a
smoky haze, sometimes a creamy white. Sometimes
it crawls along the ground, making the Squaw Car-
pet of the Sierras; at others, it towers to over twenty
feet, as in the Lilac of the Coast Range. Sometimes
its leaves are broad and leathery; sometimes long
and narrow; sometimes it is hairy, sometimes spiny;
but with all its variations of stem and leaf, it has
one habit common to all its species. It bunches up
its little flowers close together, so that they will
make a mass of color that will be seen at a distance.
It does not make the flower groups the same shape
on different species. Sometimes they form a flat
head, sometimes a plume; but always they store up
such quantities of nectar that its fragrance perfumes
the whole countryside. Even the nectar differs in
the species. Sometimes it is just unalloyed sweet-
ness; at others, it has the odor of mixed flour and
water.

56 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

Photographed by A. J. Scares
CEANOTHUS

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 57

Each tiny blossom would have a small chance in
attracting insects; but, grouped together, their color
and fragrance summon myriads. Indeed, they are
so crowded with all sorts of creeping creatures
that sometimes it is hazardous to introduce them
into one's house, no matter how much one may
admire their decorative effect. If you examine each
tiny flower, you will see that it is quite perfect. The
five sepals touch each other to form a protection
around the honey glands, for the lower part of the
petal is a mere claw. It broadens at the top and
curves toward the center like a hood. The stamens
seem to wish to avoid any protection from the
petals, for they grow long and hang quite outside the
floral envelope. No matter what type of creature
touches the Ceanothus, it is going to be splashed
with pollen. And so delectable is the refreshment
the Ceanothus offers that no creature will leave
without accepting the hospitality of several blos-
soms.

With so much aid so honestly earned, very good
seeds are made. You perhaps have noticed the
many new plants springing up around the mother
bush. Does the plant arrange for the seeds getting
any distance from their natal place? What birds
have you found eating these seeds?

The name Ceanothus means "a spring plant,"
referring to its early beauty and fragrance. The

58 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

species here pictured is verrucose, so named because
it is covered with wart-like elevations. Ceanothus
was given the genus by Theophrastus, a Greek who
studied under Plato and under Aristotle. Among
many books that he wrote were ten volumes entitled
uOf the History of Plants" and eight called "Of
the Causes of Plants." Does not that last title sound
fascinating? Does it not make us seem a part of
the World History when the native plants we are
studying fit into the same class as those known in
the days of Aristotle?

A plant that passes as an insignificant weed has
a picturesque way of grouping its flowers. Just as
in the case of the Ceanothus, the Plantain has per-
fect blossoms, each one of which is capable of seed-
making. However, the Plantain wishes a superior
seed; and having learned that its individual flowers
have no attraction, it sends up long ribbed stalks
towering above its lance-like leaves and swells out
the top into a spike of densely crowded flowerets.

Just examine one the next time you walk. You
find them anywhere there is enough earth to give
them a footing, whether it be along the State High-
way or bordering a city sidewalk. See how the
flower head sways in the slightest breeze. This
motion will catch the eye of bird or insect even if
the color is not impressive. Do all the flowers
mature at the same time? Notice the tiny bracts

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 59

that subtend each flower. Why are they so placed?
Observe the seed-cases. When the seeds are quite
ripe, the top of the case falls off like a lid, and the
seeds are free to migrate. How do they get around?
Have you noticed birds eating them?

The Plantain may be very insignificant in appear-
ance, but at heart it is really a great adventurer.
Many of our most famous humans are like that.
Neither Napoleon nor Grant was impressive in
stature. The Plantain was born in Europe; but dis-
liking the crowded conditions there, it fastened a
seed in the wool of a sheep and received free pas-
sage to Mexico. After multiplying in that country,
it wearied for new fields to conquer. It clung, per-
haps to a hair of the very horse that entered Cali-
fornia with Padre Junipero Serra. At any rate, it
was an early pioneer. In our State, it has roamed
from South to North, and from the Sea to the
Sierra. It adapts itself to any condition or climate.
If the farmer expel it from his rich fields, it thrives
in the poor soil at the edges ; and its rosette of green
furnishes fair pasturage before the grass gets fully
started.

The genus was named Plantago by the ancient
Romans, and an account of its virtues appears in
the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder, who
lived in Italy in the first century of the Christian
era. In many countries, it is deemed to have medi-
cinal value. Its leaves, made into a poultice, are

60 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

PLANTAIN

Photographed by A. J. Scares

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 61

said to reduce ulcers and tumors. There is so much
mucilage in its seeds that it is extracted and used
for papering and also for stiffening cotton goods.
The most common species in California is lanceo-
lata, from the shape of the leaves. It is a native of
England. There, the children call it "bullies" or
"sodgers" (soldiers) and play a game knocking off
its flower heads. Try the game. Has the change
of climate made the ribbed stalk any more resistant?

Another plant that crowds its perfect flowers close
together so as to make a f#r-distance appeal is the
Barberry. Human advertisers have learned by ex-
perimentation that the color combination which
can be seen farthest and clearest is yellow and black.
Notice the signboards as you ride along. The Bar-
berry approaches this combination as nearly as she
can. Against her dark, glossy leaves, she poses
groups of yellow flowers, and a bird or a bee must
be blind indeed not to catch the flashed invitation.
In the individual blossom, the action of the stamens
is very interesting. If a bug is feeding at the honey
glands and hits the base of the stamens, as he is sure
to do, they close in toward the pistil; and each
anther at their summits opens a little valve, which
is swung on a hinge, and empties its pollen. Perhaps
you can set trie stamens in motion by using a pin.
Try it.

With such a successful color advertisement, the

62 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

Barberry might have unwelcome visitors who would
devour her, body and all. To guard against this,
she makes her leaves tough and leathery, curves
their edges, and places a spine at each turn. Then
she sets each leaf close to the stem and crowds them
thick together. Woe to a hungry cow or a greedy
goat who tackles the Barberry. The leaves of the
Barberry resemble those of the European Holly in
shape and in texture, though not in color. Of late
years, the florists have commercialized this passing
resemblance by combining the leaves of the Bar-
berry with the berries of the California Holly for
Christmas decorations.

The fruit of the Barberry is, as one would sus-
pect from the name, a berry, and it is as handsome
as the flower clusters and the leaves. How do the
seeds get carried about? With such an armed
base, is it likely an animal will approach them?
The fruit has given the genus its name, Berberis,
which is from the Arabian for its berry, Berberys.
The species is pinnata, from the arrangement of the
leaves. The fruit is said to make good jelly and
preserves, but it is somewhat bitter. The Indians
used to dry it for winter. They used the root also,
making a yellow dye from it. In fact, every part
of the Barberry can be commercialized if we regard
the plant simply for its use to man. If, however,
we regard it for the pleasure its beauty gives us, we

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 63

Photographed by A. J. Scares
CHRISTMAS BERRY

64 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

will find it one of the best hedges our native Flora
produces. It grows quickly, its branches cling to-
gether and keep out intruders, and it is always a
joy to look upon.

Another native shrub that can easily be grown in
our gardens is the Christmas Berry. It, too, early
acquired a knowledge of the advertising value of
massing color. Each small flower is perfect and
with its dish of nectar could attract a helper; but
the Christmas Berry blooms in summer when food
is plentiful, and then, too, she towers above the
ground so that her small individual blossom would
not attract notice were it not accompanied by a
goodly company of its fellows.

The Christmas Berry, like the Barberry, makes
her leaves disagreeable to the wandering stock; and
so she is left undisturbed to grow year after year
until she often reaches beyond twenty feet. With
her white banners in the heat of summer and her
red in the days of cold weather, she ever adds beauty
to our landscape; and it is to be deplored that many
touring automobilists tear her apart so ruthlessly.

Observe the calyx in this plant. See how narrow
it is below and broad above. It is said to be turbi-
nate, or top-shaped, with the apex down. As the
corolla falls off, the calyx curves inward and joins
together -its five parts, completely enclosing the seed-
case. As the seeds are growing, the calyx also

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS

65

grows, a soft mealy berry; and when they are fully
mature, it signals the glad tidings to the world by
donning a rich cardinal
coat. If you cut open a
mature berry, you will
find that the center re-
sembles the core of an
apple with the seeds
well protected inside it.
If you taste the berry,
you will find it sweet
and spicy.

Why does Madame
Christmas Berry take
so much trouble with
her seed-case? Well,
with all her love of
beauty, she is a utilitarian. She ever has the in-
stinct that she must get her seeds scattered. So
she wears the cardinal coat to attract the eyes of
Mr. Bird as he wings past. She hangs each berry
on a loose little stem so that he can pull it off with-
out losing his temper. She seasons the berry with
sugar and spice so that it will be palatable. She
puts the little seeds in a membraneous case so that,
if Mr. Bird gobbles his food whole, the seeds can
pass through his digestive system without being
harmed. It is claimed by some botanists that the

CHRISTMAS BERRY

66 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

seeds of Christmas Berry are never able to produce
plants unless they have passed through the alimen-
tary canal of a bird. Others claim that they will
grow if you clean them when you pick them. Sup-
pose you investigate and see what are the facts about
these seeds.

The botanical name of the Christmas Berry,
Heteromeles arbutifolia, deals with its fruit and
leaves. Heteromeles indicates that the fruit is not
the same substance throughout, and that you have
seen by cutting the berry and finding the central
cavity. "Arbutifolia" tells that its leaves are like
those of the Arbutus family. "Folia," you know,
always indicates "leaves," whether in a book or in a
plant. We commonly call this plant California
Holly because its berries are cardinal for Christ-
mas; and our traditions teach us that Yuletide deco-
rations, to be conservative, should be holly.

Lately we have been reviving the Spanish Cali-
fornian name for the shrub, Tollon. We pronounce
it correctly, but we mis-spell it. The early Spanish
pioneers found it growing in gorges, and so they
named it "Tollon," or gorge berry. The botany of
the United States Geological Survey, which is the
standard for California, spells the name correctly;
but our modern writers seem to be too far away
from the Spanish days to remember their orthogra-
phy, and they are misled by the Spanish Californian

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 67

pronunciation of the letters "11" as "y" ; so they have
been writing the name "Toyon." However, we can
spell it correctly, just as we spell San Jose correctly,
and not "San Hosa."

We have come to mis-spell another Spanish plant
name, by depending upon our ear. When the early
Spanish Californians explored the Sacramento Val-
ley, they came to a river whose banks were gor-
geously draped in the autumnal festoons of wild
grape leaves and fruit. They were footsore and
thirsty. The acid fruit was so welcome to the tired
adventurers that they named the stream the Grape
River, Rio Uva. Now, the Spanish Californians
pronounce "v" much like they did "b." So when
they said "Rio Uva," the Americans replied, "Oh,
yes. Uba River." That did not look very well, so
they prefixed a "y" ; and so we have, since before
the days of the famous Dam, the "Yuba River."
So, too, we have "abalone," instead of "avalone."
Spelling comes and spelling goes, but we must re-
member that the tumbling Yuba River owes its
name to the useful plant that still beautifies its
banks, the wild grape, or "la uva."

The plants already treated in this chapter arrange
their blossoms in clusters for advertising purposes,
but each little perfect flower swings on its own indi-
vidual stalk. However, one plant family, the larg-
est in existence, has advanced beyond co-operation

68 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

merely to attract attention. This is the Compositae,
which you know well either in your garden or in
the wildwoods. Its genera differ, but they all are
fashioned to carry on their life-work co-operatively.
Just as people living in cities secure service mors
easily than those residing on isolated ranches, sc
does Compositae get what she wants by limiting hei
area.

Let us take the Seaside Daisy. You see a yellow
center, surrounded by violet rays. Look close at the
center. It is made up of tiny flower tubes crowded
densely together, and for the whole mass there is
but one circle of light-colored rays to summon visit-
ors. These rays form a glorified group corolla, and
their only duty is to advertise. In correlation with
the group corolla, Compositae has developed what
may be considered a group calyx, as it performs foi
the flower head the duties that a calyx does in an
individual flower. It is called an involucre and is
made up of many leaflets crowded together. It is
tough and not only protects the tender members of
the head from moisture and from cold, but forms a
strong wall against certain thieving insects who try
to cut through and surreptitiously drain the honey
glands from below.

In the center, the little flowers in the outside rings
open first, while the inner circles stay tight in bud.
The stamens ripen while the pistil is immature, and

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 69

Photographed by A. J. Scares
SEASIDE DAISY

70 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

the anthers discharge their pollen inside their floral
tube. Then the pistil grows up quickly and pushes
this pollen outside the floret. You have seen the
golden dust loose on top for any one to pick up.
Mr. Bee in passing the outer circles gets some pol-
len on him and carries it to some stigma in the right
stage to receive it. Should the unexpected happen,
and no insect visit the Daisy, she would still make*
seed. Her inner circles will be sending out theii
pollen when the outer stigmas are ready to seize it,
and some powder must reach them.

Before the flower head is ripe, pull out one of the
florets and examine its calyx. Its base is annexed
firmly to the bottom of the pistil. Its top is dis-
sected into numerous silky bristles. These are the
"pappus," which remain on the head when the
corolla fades and which float the ripe seeds into the
air. Probably you have blown at them to "tell your
fortune" by the number left on the head.

"Pappus" is derived from the word for "Grand-
father," and refers to the appearance of age of the
white silky hairs. The name of the genus of this
Daisy, Erigeron, refers to this pappus. It is from
two Greek words, "spring" and "old man." Many
people with no knowledge of the Classics commonly
call the plant "the old man of spring," so it must be
a fitting title. The species, glaucus, means "covered
with white bloom that easily rubs off." Pass your

SOME GROUPED FLOWERS 71

fingers along the plant, and you will see that this
name, too, is truly descriptive.

72 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

CHAPTER V.

SOME FLOWERS THAT LIKE HIGH ALTITUDES.

Public opinion has always esteemed a love of
flowers a feminine quality, in spite of the fact that
all the world botanists have been men. In the past,
only man could venture into new regions and ex-
plore unknown heights, for woman's place was in
the haunts of home. So men discovered new plants
and named them and described them. This mascu-
line description is probably the foundation for many
of the mistakes in the color of flowers as set down
in botanies. Few men, not artists, see the difference
in hues and shades and tints as women do. This
defect in the color education of men — as well as the
fact that many plants have been described from
dried specimens, whose color is quite unlike the
fresh beauty — has often led astray amateur botanists

But to-day is the era of the amateur botanist as
well as of the amateur in every other line. Women
now find themselves free to tramp anywhere their
brothers may. They invade the most remote wilds
and eagerly examine the flora in its native soil.

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 73

Their written descriptions of plants* have placed in
the hands of the average citizen books more intelli-
ble to him than those written by men, probably be-
cause the unscientific eye is most quickly attracted
by the color of the blossom.

The heyday of blossomtide in the Sierras lies be-
tween the middle of July and the middle of August.
The wise old mountains have learned that they have
only three months free from their snowy blanket,
and they respond to every ray of the sun with a
plant that joys through its whole life history in an
accelerated beauty. Nothing seems listless. The
plants which at the Coast produce inconspicuous
seeds here wave a bright scarlet or cardinal pod
Along our whole Eastern Range, the season is about
the same, although the varieties of flowers may
differ. In the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve, one gets
a representative collection of Sierran plants with
only a healthful amount of mountain climbing.

From the Tahoe level of 6,200 to the 10,000 fool
summits, one finds a varying array. First, one is
impressed by the aspiring sisters of the blossoms that
gladdened the Coast in the spring days of March
and April; and then by the new flowers that never
descend to the lower levels. In the upper regions

*Miss Parsons: "Wild Flowers of California " and Mrs. Dana-
Parsons: "How to Know Wild Flowers", both based on color classi-
fications, have made many people acquainted with the wild flowers.

74 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

the white Forgetmenot, the Buttercup, and the
golden Brodiecea are small and scrawny as if worn
out by long travels from the sea. The yellow Violet
is a wood dweller, pallid and shrinking in compari-
son with the glowing Johnny-Jump-Up. The blue
and the white Violet are smaller and more delicate.
The Squaw Grass is a poor diminutive of the beau-
tiful plume that waves on Mount Tamalpais. But
that ends the list of blossoms that grow less beautiful
with ascent.

The Columbines are glorified sisters of the Coast
beauties, and crowd so closely over every sunny hill-
side that they tint the slopes red. The Castilleja
bursts into every shade and tint of red and yellow
that man ever dreamed of, and the color bracts are
longer and more plentiful. The Star of Bethlehem
and the Breath of Heaven expand in the higher
altitude, and the False Solomon's Seal and its sister
Smilacena are as common as the Buttercups at the
Coast. The Hound's Tongue is an irradiated devel-
opment, seeming flecks of sun-kissed sky scattered
through the woodlands. The Lupine family is well
represented, and is as well equipped for securing
insect aid as any of the species. One exquisite crea-
ture in iridescent lavender displays a keel of purest
gold to lure the giddy fly. When she has accom-
plished her purpose and received pollen, from an-
other blossom, she changes her brilliant keel to

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 75

darkest purple; but, whether in lavender and gold
or in lavender and purple, she is one of the loveliest
of her family.

The most beautiful Brodiaea above the Tahoe
level is a white so pure that it seems the very soul of
whiteness. Most of the shrubs have white blossoms,
and the white is always a surprise in its utter clean-
liness. The Ceanothus, the Cherry, the Service
Berry, the Bridal Wreath, the Elder, the Chamisso,
the Labrador Tea, all seem to revere the mem-
ory of the pure snow that protects them for so
many months a year and to strive to perpetuate
it in their blossoms. They achieve a whiteness
that the flowers at the Coast do not reach.

One could go on in-
definitely enumerating
the variations from the
Coast species, but the es-
pecially Sierran blos-
soms are more interest-
ing. Probably the one
th'at most interests the
Alpine visitor is the
Snow Plant. This is one
radiant cardinal glow
from root to bell-rim-
med crown, symbolic of
•••••••

SNOW PLANT

76 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

intense vitality. It does not grow out of the snow,
as poets are wont to picture it, but springs from the
brown piney earth after the snow has melted. Some-
times snow is all around the exposed ground, and
this may have given the artist his color contrast, and
he failed to notice that the spot from which the
Snow Plant rose was free of white. Snow Plant
plans her growing in the fall, with new little plants
all ready to come up when instinct tells them that
the sun reaches the ground.

The Snow Plant loves bright color and disdains
to wear green leaves and prosaic brown stems. It
tinges its whole body red: the fleshy simple stem,
the bracts which it substitutes for leaves, the bells
which are its blossoms, and the fruit it produces, all
red, except sometimes whitish at the base and root.
People not knowing the plant often pick it up when
it is simply a column of red bracts wrapped around
the unawakened flowers. It is not at all beautiful in
that stage and gives no idea of its shapeliness in
maturity. If left unhandled, it really becomes beau-
tiful, and it is interesting in its development.

If one watches its haunt, some day you see a push-
ing up of the brown earth in a little heap. From
this, soon peeps a pale red tip. This comes out far-
ther, showing some tightly wrapped bracts. It
grows taller, displaying more and more bracts with
each inch of height. Finally, its full length is ex-

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 77

posed, the part next the brown earth swelling out
for a good base. The lower part may remain
whitish or pale red; but from a few inches above
the ground, it grows more vivid each day. As the
bracts deepen in color, they loosen their tight hold
on the fleshy stem, and from between them rise sym-
metrical bells one after another around the stem
until they reach the summit. The fleshiness of the
structure keeps it from wilting, so that when the
topmost bells are ringing the lowest ones are still
fresh. Then the Snow Plant is truly beautiful. The
individuals vary in the intensity of their red, but
they all have a sort of scintillation, as if diamond
dust had been mixed in their structure. Never,
never, pick one until it hangs out its bells to its
very apex, and then you will be rewarded for your
self-control. Because the ruthless or the heedless
gather the immature plant, leaving no opportunity
for seed-making, the Federal Government has im-
posed a fine of twenty-five dollars for picking a
Snow Plant in the National Parks.

If the Snow Plant is left alone, it can propagate
its kind successfully. Its bells are constructed to
make insects work for its purpose when once they
enter them. And there is no doubt they will come,
with the bright glow and the luster catching every
ray of sunshine that dips under the trees and reflect-
ing it into the eye of each passing winged creature.

78 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

The Snow Plant's calyx holds fast to the seed-
case and forms a roundish nut, with the filament
hanging out of the center. As soon as the flowers
are fertilized, the Snow Plant loses its sparkle and
its red becomes a darker shade, but the red persists
even after the plant is dried.

The botanical name describes the appearance of
the plant — Sarcodes, the Greek for "fleshy," and
sanguinea, from the Latin for "blood." The Span-
ish Californians called it Sangre de Cristo, the
"blood of Christ." They evidently believed, as
many people do today, that the red flower rises
directly from the white snow, and they saw the
appropriate compari-
son of the magic of
Christ's blood making
the world pure.

A Sierran plant that
announces the Spring
earlier than does the
S n o w P 1 a n t is the j
Anemone. O n e d a y
you gaze at a bank of
snow on a sunny hill-
slope. It is shining
white, but motionless.
The very next day, as
as your eyes linger on ANEMONE

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 79

it, you are startled. It quivers and has warmer
tints. Then you realize that the snow has been
replaced overnight by the Anemones. Even though
their advent is the same year after year, it never
loses the effect of magic. The explanation is sim-
ple. The earth is so warm that it melts the snow
next to it, making a cave with just a thin crust
between it and the sky. The Anemone, eager
for a glimpse of the sun, starts her growth under
this crust, in this conservatory as it were; and the
very hour the crust disappears, she flings wide
her floral banners. In her haste she does not
bother to make a corolla, but she tints her calyxes
blue and lavender and pink and cream, all in the
softest Dresden hues, so that no insect suspects that
she is not wearing a full outfit. She has many sta-
mens and a delicate meal spread. Any early bug is
well paid for the services he renders her. The
blossoms are so dainty, waving over the gray-green
deeply-cleft leaves that they appeal to the human as
does the Baby-Blue-Eyes at the Coast. The Anem-
one is buoyant with life only just after the snow has
left her. In a couple of weeks, both blossoms and
leaves on the same patch grow smaller and nar-
rower. One not acquainted with their habits would
think them a different plant. But, higher up, new
Anemones are emerging from under hollow snow,
so that, beginning at 6,500 feet in early June, one

80 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

still enjoys their loveliness in the middle of July at
8,000.

The name Anemone is from the Greek, meaning
"Wind Flower" because the blossom likes exposed
ledges. Drummondii is after a Scotch botanist who
collected our mountain flowers.

Another beautiful blossom that is a native of our

mountains is the Sierra
Primrose. It does not
come lower than 7,500
feet and probably climbs
a thousand feet higher.
Shortly after the snow
vanishes, it appears on
slopes that are partially
rocky but not too much
exposed to wind. If Mrs.
Primrose were not prov-
ident, she would have a
very short life. The
Sierran sun seems con-
centrated heat as it
pours on these cliffs and

is reflected from them. It would surely frizzle
her up were the plant as delicate as the charm-
ing blossom appears. But Mrs. Primrose is pre-
pared .for this blazing sun. Her stems are thick
and woody; and, instead of standing erect, they

SIERRA PRIMROSE

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 81

creep along the ground under bunches of leaves
crowded so thickly that they make a permanent
shade. No matter at what angle the sun darts its
rays, they do not reach that stem nor diminish its
store of food and drink stored up for the plant's
summer sustenance. The leaves are thick to hold
their moisture and narrow not to present too much
surface to the sun, and on the angle of each leaf is
a sharp tooth to pierce the tongue of any marauding
animal. With such an excellent foundation, Mrs.
Primrose can well support her seed-making parts.

She raises them upon a slender stalk and groups
them together at the top. All the flowers do not
come out at once, but the lower ones first, just as in
our cultivated primrose or cowslip. Her petals are
a deep rose, with a yellow center. Sometimes a
wine color ring outlines this yellow; and with the
pale stamens enclosed, it gives you the impression
of an eye looking straight at you, an eye friendly
and yet appealing, so that you instantly fall in love
with the flower and spontaneously quote Words-
worth.

However, Mrs. Primrose does not care for human
impressions. She is set on captivating the bug's
fancy. She succeeds because his taste in color and
form is the same as ours. She is very careful of her
seed-making organs. As the sun goes down, she
furls her petals tight around them, to open again

82 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

when brightness and warmth returns. She unfolds
her buds very gradually, so that a single stalk of
Primrose in a glass of water will keep sending out
fresh blooms for three weeks.

This is the only native Primrose we have in Cali-
fornia. The botanical name, Primula, is from the
Latin primus, meaning "first," referring to its early
blooming after the snow's departure. "Suffrute-
scens" is also Latin, and indicates that the plant has
woody stems at its base.

Two alpine plants that seek the same altitude as
the Primrose, though they prefer more moist loca-
tions, are the heathers, the white and the so-called
purple. This last evidently was named from a dried
specimen, as its blossoms are decidedly not purple.
They are a bright magenta when fresh, before fer-
tilization. While both heathers belong to the Heath
Family — that clan of such wondrous beauty as the
Snow Plant, the Pyrola, the Rhododendron, the
Madrono, the Manzanita — they differ in appear-
ance from each other. Both are evergreens, both
cling close to the warm bosom of Mother Earth,
and both grow woody stems so as to conserve food
for the plant; but there, as far as the untrained eye
is concerned, the resemblance ends.

The White Heather presses its leaves close to the
stem, .in rows of four, and overlaps the lower upon
the upper, for all the world as the Cedar does. In

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 83

fact, the stems look like little twigs of Cedar. You
can readily see that White Heather is exposing just
as little as possible of her leaf surface to the Sie/ran
sunshine. To counter-
part her stubby leaves,
she hangs above them
the most graceful blos-
soms, each a pure white
perfect bell, with five
reddish sepals symmetri-
cally arranged around
its base. A bed of
White Heather suggests
a summer camp of the
fairies, with the snowy
chimes resounding a
welcome to the concord
of Nature. And with
fairies come the other

wee folk, who crawl into Mrs. White Heather's bell
and pay the dues for her hospitality.

White Heather is named Gassiope, for a favorite
in Greek mythology, the same lady whose memory is
honored by the constellation Cassiopeia's Chair.
Mertensiana, the species, is for a German professor,
Franz Karl Mertens, who won renown in the study
of plants.

Magenta Heather also crowds her small green

WHITE HEATHER

84 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

leaves, but she holds each one out at an angle from
the stem. The twigs of this evergreen suggest a
miniature pine-tree at first glance, but, of course,
the leaves are not needles in a sheath. Mrs. Ma-
genta Heather forms her blossoms like saucers and
crowds them together on the top of the stems. She
hangs the stamens quite prominently outside the

corolla, and nothing
can pass her flower
cluster without knock-
i n g t h e 1 i 1 1 1 e an-
thers. The style also
protrudes, and it re-
mains on the seed-case
after the seeds are ma-
ture.

Magenta Heather is
sometimes called Bryan-
thus, because of traits
similar to those of the
mosses. The botanical
name of the genus is

MAGENTA HEATHER &

Phyllodoce, from the

Greek explaining the structure of its leaves. The
species is Breweri, in honor of William H. Brewer,
a botanist, who collected California wild flowers
from. 1860 to 1865. He was the first to collect scien-

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 85

tifically in our Sierras, so it is fitting that this un-
usual evergreen should hold his name.

Another member of the Heath family which likes
the mountains is Ledum glandulosum, or Labrador
Tea. It is a beautiful evergreen shrub, with rigid
reddish brown branches which often are covered
with a rust-colored dust. The glossy leathery leaves
make a fine color contrast as they crowd closely
around the stem. It is only the upper surface of the
leaf that is dark green and shining, but it curves its
edges back so that the under side is well hidden and
only the upper catches the eye. There is an object in
this rolling of edges. The under side of the leaf is
a pale green, not strong-looking like the top, but it
is dotted over with glands that manufacture an aro-
matic resin. It would never do to expose these
glands to the mountain sunshine, so Ledum turns her
leaf edges over as a protective awning. Each leaf
terminates in a sharp little point, but it is too soft
to hurt any mouth that might attack it. Ledum
depends upon her taste to discourage animals from
devouring her.

The blossoms are a pure white and are clustered
at the top of the stem. The stamens hang out past
the petals, and the style also is long. Any creature,
winging its way past and hovering a moment above
the Ledum, will be tempted and help her in her
seed-making.

86 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

The name, Ledum, is the ancient Latin for this
genus. Glandulosum, one can see, is a description
of the leaf's activity. If you crush a leaf, the air is
instantly aromatic with turpentine; and, if you taste

it, the flavor is that of
pure turpentine. It is
said that the shrub poi-
sons sheep, but I have
my suspicions that it is
one of the few plants
they dislike and do not
destroy. The common
name, Labrador Tea,
comes from the Atlan-
tic member of the fam-
ily, Ledum palustre,
whose leaves are used
as a beverage. Sir John
Franklin and his party,
in their Arctic Expedi-
tion of 1819-1822, made a tea of the leaves, which
they found reviving in the polar cold. They re-
ported that it had the taste and fragrance of rhu-
barb, so its glands must make a product different
from that which our native species manufactures.

A Sierran plant that seems to be in the process of
changing the form of her corolla is the Gentian
In joining her five petals together into a funnel, she

LABRADOR TEA

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 87

GENTIAN

Photographed by A. J. Scares

88 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

seems to have found that each petal is too broad.
She does not wish to trim them off nor yet to spread
them out and leave an easy entrance for visitors; so
she plaits the extra material into folds until each
lobe stands out distinctly, just as a dressmaker plaits
extra material into folds to make a skirt hang prop-
erly. Perhaps in the coming centuries, Gentian
will absorb these folds, or perhaps she will modify
them into some fantastic form; but at present she
seems proud of them and calls attention to them b\
waving on their tops several slender bristles. Of
course, these little appendages stir in each breath of
air and catch the eye of the butterfly.

Being overgenerous in corolla cloth, Gentian
economizes in other lines. She has a very short
style, so that the two spreading lobes of the stigma
are closely annexed to the ovary. You generally see
small bugs around the Gentian. Probably she con-
cocts a special dish to their liking so that they will
creep down her tube to the waiting stigma. The
five stamens, too, have comparatively short fila-
ments, their heads not coming to the top of the
corolla. The filaments are joined to the petals just
at the bottom of the folds. An insect, in passing
down the plaits or in returning up them, will be
sure to wriggle enough to disturb the stamens and
have the anthers empty their contents on him.

Because Gentian blooms late in August and in

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 89

September, she has to see that her seeds are well
protected from an early cold snap. When fertiliza-
tion is completed, she does not cast aside the corolla,
but wraps it around the seed-case. She changes her
blue to a purple, and then to an ashy hue, to warn
insects that they are no longer welcome. The calyx,
too, stays on, so as to give extra warmth. The
species shown here is called calycosa, because of the
leaf-like bracts around the bottom of the flower.

The Gentian is esteemed a great treasure by flower
lovers. Its blue is quite unlike that of any blossom
we have at the Coast. When you stumble unexpect-
edly upon a Gentian bed, the impression is of a bit
of sky fallen to earth. Do you think that blue makes
a deeper appeal to the human mind and heart than
do other colors? What tint are the flowers we re-
gard with most tenderness? What of blue in our
paintings of religious subjects? Is Judas ever de-
picted wearing the color of the Heavens?

The Gentian was named for King Gentius of
Illyria, that eastern borderland of the Adriatic
whose history spells romance right down to this
hour. Gentius was something of a practicing physi-
cian, and he made known the curative qualities of
the root of the plant. Even today the essence of the
Gentian is used in medicine.

Another Sierran plant that seems to be in the
era of changing its parts is the Pentstemon. Any

90 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

schoolboy who has drawn a pentagon will guess that
"pentstemon" means "five stamens." Well, that is
what the word does mean; but look in the blossom
and count the stamens bearing anthers on their tops.
You see there are but four.

In the ancient days, long before this genus was

named, the flower prob-
ably did have five sta-
mens; but it evidently
concluded that four
with good healthy an-
thers could work to bet-
ter advantage than five
in the crowded quarters
of its throat. So it is
transforming that fifth
stamen into something
else — something more
beautiful and quite as
useful. The plant, for
all its artistic taste in
form and texture and
color, has a very practical trait. It will not endure
a useless part. If there be no work for an organ,
it evolves it into something that can do work or
else it devolves it out of existence. Examine the
throat of the Pentstemon. The four regular stamens
bend a little at their base, but stand up straight as

PENTSTEMON

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 91

they approach the light. From behind them, see, a
filament rises straight up. That was originally the
fifth stamen, but see how much more showy is the
beard it now wears than are the anthers the other
stamens carry. It projects this beard just to attract
insects. When they arrive, down they go into the
funnel, stumbling against the stamens in such nar-
row quarters and receiving their meed of pollen.

The Pentstemon here pictured is the Newberryi,
sometimes called the Pride of the Mountains. It is
a rugged perennial, growing low in height but
spreading its woody stems in every direction. It
does not seem to need good soil, for it creeps any-
where over the granite cliffs, sometimes on their tops,
sometimes filling side crevices which cannot possibly
contain much ground. It does not disdain the earth,
for it flourishes at the foot of cliffs where the pine
needles and the disintegrated granite, uniting for
ages, form a rich mold. Its blossoms are a rich
crimson; and, flung against the grey rocks, it makes
a striking color contrast that is appreciated not only
by man but by bird and bug.

The anthers and the beard of the projecting fila-
ment of the fifth stamen are covered with a dense
wool which shows any hungry creature the path
to the dining hall. This wool grows cinerous, or
ash-colored, as the blossom ages. The leaves of this
Pentstemon are leathery, a dark green, with toothed

92 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

edge. They form an effective background for the
crimson blossoms.

Under cultivation, the Pentstemon enhances its
beauty, increasing in size and softening its texture,
while losing none of its ability to choose brilliant
color. Its common name is Beard-Tongue, from
that changing fifth stamen. It is this organ that
gives it the botanical name, as the ancient scientists
wished to emphasize the fact that it was present.
Newberryi is in honor of Dr. J. S. Newberry, who
was a member of Lieutenant Williamson's party
that made one of the first surveys of California, be-
ginning in 1853. All these Government surveying
parties had among their number botanists who col-
lected the new plants and introduced them to the
world of Science.

A close relative of the Pentstemon is the Mimu-
lus, they both being members of the Scrophularia-
ceae or Figwort Family. The Pink Mimulus is one
of the lovely flowers of the high Sierras. Its pale
green foliage and rather weak stems crowned by
its exquisite rose pink blossoms give the impression
that it is an escape from the conservatory. On first
acquaintance, one marvels that such a delicate crea-
ture can live under such extremes of climate. With
a longer observation, one sees that this delicacy
is only in appearance. Pink Mimulus is really
abounding in vigor. It sends out its first blossoms

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 93

in late July in some shaded nook on a creek bank.
Then, as the water recedes into a narrow channel
and exposes a rocky bed along its course, as all Cali-
fornia streams do in summer, Pink Mimulus springs
up overnight among the newly uncovered rocks. Of
course, there must be soil among the stones, rich
surface soil brought down by the stream and depos-
ited in the sluggish turn; the water is probably near
the undersurface; the Sierran sun pouring on the
bare boulders raises the temperature; so it really
is an ideal forcing bed for Pink Mimulus; but the
place looks so barren and she looks so delicate that
you doubt your eyes and have to reason out the con-
ditions that make it possible for her to thrive there.
Thrive there she does and increases her race. Even
after the late September frosts, even until the Octo-
ber snows, you can pick some Pink Mimulus on the
emerged creek bed ; and the more you pick, the more
she rushes out to fulfill her duty before winter over-
takes her.

The calyx of Pink Mimulus is said to be pris-
matic because it has five flat faces joined together
by five angles. Each 'face terminates in a tooth
pointing upward. The calyx remains on after the
corolla falls away. The calyx, as well as the stem
and leaf, are furnished with little hairs to keep the
plant warm.

The lovely corolla is in two lips, not very differ-

94 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

ent in size, but the upper with two lobes curving
backward and the lower with three spreading out.
Each lobe has flecks or lines, or both, of darker
rose or sometimes crimson. The lower lip has
stripes of pure gold or paler yellow, with hairy
ridges, to show the way to the honey dishes. Inside
the corolla are the four stamens standing in pairs
with their anthers ready to discharge the pollen on
any visitor. The pistil has a stigma that acts in a
peculiar way. It spreads out two flat surfaces, white
and sticky, one to either side. If a grain of pollen
touches it, the two parts come together mechani-
cally, closing tight while the pollen gets down to
the ovules. You can watch it work by touching the
lobe with a pin.

The Pink Mimulus is Mimulus Lewisii in bot-
any. Mimulus is from the Latin for "comic actor,''
because the genus seems to present a mimicking face.
From this fact, many of our species are commonly
known as the "Monkey Flower." Lewisii is for
Captain Meriweather Lewis of the United States
Army who, with Captain William Clark, in 1803-6,
journeyed from the Mississippi across the Rocky
Mountains and down the Columbia River to the
Pacific Ocean, the first white men to make this
arduous trip. It is on the results of their expedi-
tion that the United States based our claims to the
Oregon Territory. Great Britain acknowledged the

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 95

justice of the claim; and so, through a scientific ex-
pedition, we acquired that great Northwest without
shedding one drop of blood. Captains Lewis and
Clark described all the animals and plants they
came across. In the mountains of Montana, they
first viewed Pink Mimulus. Later, botanists named
the species for the intrepid soldier. Our Mimulus
Leunsii seems to be living up to her title, cheerfully
overcoming all obstacles to perform her duty.

One of the beautiful flowers of the high Sierras
that comes after mid-
summer is the Alpine
Lily. Its blossoms are
perfect bells, formed by
the three sepals and the
three petals being
shaped and shaded ex-
actly the same. The in-
dividual flowers are not
large, but so many of
them branch out on
either side of the same
stem that they give the
impression of great
bloom. The botany of ALpmE

the United States Geo-
logical Survey reports from two to fifty flowers

96 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

on the same stalk, but the happy medium is more
often found.

The buds of Alpine Lily have the tips of the seg-
ments meeting together. As the sun warms them,
the sides swell out a little; then, just below the top,
they split apart; this split proceeds upward, until
finally the tips separate; then the upper part of the
segment curves backward, while the rest of the
perianth remains funnel-shaped. The bud is rather
pale, and the outside of the perianth never gains the
rich glow of the interior. That is a gorgeous vel-
vety orange or reddish orange or burnt orange, with
spots and veins of wine and maroon and brown. At
the base, each segment is stained with its wealth of
nectar, and down the segment from tip to base runs
a "nectariferous groove" to direct the visitors. The
six stamens rise above the curve of the perianth, and
the anthers sway loosely on their tops. The style is
long and its stigma spreads into three lobes. The
hummingbird and the butterfly find it a pleasant
place to call ; and for their entertainment they repay
Alpine Lily by carrying pollen to the next blossom.
The capsule has three cells and in it are ripened
many little seeds. Alpine Lily holds her three-
cornered seed-case up straighter than she does her
blooms. She knows that the hummingbird and the
butterfly have a purpose of their own in seeking her
company and that they will find her bell at whatever

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 97

angle it droops. But the wind is another thing. It
has no purpose in helping her distribute her seeds.
It is unaware of her existence save as an obstacle
that needs a little energy to pass. Should the cap-
sule hang in the lee of a leaf, it might hold its seeds
until it grew weary and dropped them right under
the mother plant. That would never do. The seeds
must be dispersed as widely as possible so that the
new plants will have little competition.

These seeds need unfrequented places to settle in.
It takes several years for lily seed to develop into a
bulb from which grows the flower stalk. For some
years, it sends up leaves just above the ground, vary-
ing their shapes with different years. During the
same period, it is developing underground towards
a bulb of short thick-pointed scales. Finally, it
has progressed enough to produce fruit, and it joys
upward into its bloom of sun-tinged bells.

The bulb underground multiplies into bulblets, so
that the lily is propagated in two ways. One should
never pull any member of the Lily Family — Calo-
chortus, Fritallaria, Brodiaea, Zygadenus, or others
of the beauteous sisterhood — as the jerk kills the
bulb. Cut the lower stalk with a knife or shears,
and the bulb is still good for a number of new
plants.

Alpine Lily is sometimes called Little Tiger Lily
from its coloring. Its botanical name is Lilium

98 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

parvum. Lilium is the ancient Latin name for the
family, and parvum is from the small bulb or small
flowers.

A lowly sister of Alpine Lily that springs up in
the damp spots in the Sierras as soon as the snow
disappears, and that always lives in moist places, is
the Wild Garlic or Wild Onion. One may not care
for its odor, but the quality that produces this same
odor often gives savor to many an otherwise insipid
camp stew. The Wild Onion bulbs had developed
the year before, so as to be ready to rush into bloom
with the first cleared earth. They wear a reddish
or a brown coat for winter protection. Within the
heavier colored coat are fitted closely many veined
layers, so that the bulb is said to be "tunicated," as
is the cultivated onion. From the center of the
bulb starts the new plant, pushing up two green tips
ready to burst through the ground at the first hail
from the sunshine. The leaves all rise from the top
of the bulb and overlap at their base. As they grow
in the air, they spread out long and narrow, and
finally their ends become threadlike and twist in-
wardly. They take no chances of shutting out the
sunshine from the precious blossom, and they wither
away early.

From the center of the leaves, there rises a naked
scape, on the top of which is borne the numerous
pink flowers. In this floral envelope, the sepals and

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 99

100 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

petals are exactly alike and each is striped deli-
cately with a pinkish brown. The six stamens are
securely attached to the base of the segments, and
their anthers do not extend beyond the perianth.
The bug must touch these anthers in seeking the
nectar dishes below. The flowers are grouped to-
gether so as to attract attention. There are papery
bracts at the bottom of the cluster, which hold the
sunshine around them. The flowers on the outside
mature first, and then byv gradual turns they ripen
to the center. This process gives a longer time in
which to attract visitors.

When the seed is formed, the perianth remains
on, withering into a papery substance. The capsule
is three-lobed, with a double crest on top of each
lobe. When the seeds are ripe, the seed-case begins
at the top to split into three parts, very slowly be-
cause the cells are held together by a sort of lattice-
work. When a whiff of air dashes by, it hits the
capsule, and the three distended parts slap together
and then rebound. Out go their top seeds. Then
the capsule slits down a little farther, and the process
is repeated. If all the seeds could be carried away
by the first breeze, they would all go in one direc-
tion. By opening the capsule gradually, Wild
Onion catches the tide of various directions, and
within a few years she is able to populate a wide
acreage. You will observe this same habit of the

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTIT06E^ :

capsule in your garden lilies, or in any wild species
near you.

The cows love the Wild Onion. If at sunset in
a mountain pass you meet a herd returning from the
day pasturage, their breath nearly makes you faint.
Quite different from "the sweet breath of kine" of
the poet. The milk is tainted so strongly that the
taste appears even in biscuits and cakes. There is
no way to keep the cattle in the Sierras from Wild
Onion, if there be any in their neighborhood, except
by locking them in a corral. Once free, they rush
to it, as a boy does to a fire, and with more reason.

The Wild Onion is called Allium bisceptrum by
scientists. Allium is the ancient Latin name for the
genus, and bisceptrum describes the two crests on
each lobe of the seed-case that this species wears.

Another member of the Lily family that seeks the
Sierras is Veratrum californicum, or False Helle-
bore. This tall beauty is very unlike Alpine Lily
or Wild Onion in appearance; but it has their true
lily traits of the flower stalk coming from a root-
stock of several years development, of having flow-
ers with six segments and six stamens, and of ripen-
ing a three-celled capsule.

The Veratrum sends up a stout stalk from three
to eight feet high, either near the creek bank or on
a hillside, but always in good soil and never from
the broken rock beds in which so many Sierran

102 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

plants thrive. Its leaves are thickly crowded at the
base, but grow singly near and among the flower
panicles. Each leaf is parallel-veined; each is ses-
sile, that is, sitting on the stem; each forms a sheath

around the stem, and
each seems to have too
much material, so Vera-
trum plaits it into folds
just as Gentian folds her
petals. With her large
upward-slanting leaves,
a meadow of Veratrum
looks like a field of
corn.

The blossoms come
out in loose branches
along the top of the stem,
the lower branchlets
VERATRUM longer than the upper

so that the flower stalk

rising above the green base, sometimes to three feet,
presents the . appearance of a great creamy spire.
The individual flowers are on tiny stems and crowd
thickly around their branches, appearing on every
side so that no matter which way you view the
Veratrum, you seem to be looking at its front face.
The blossoms are often two kinds on one plant, some
that are perfect with both stamens and pistils and

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 103

others that have either stamens alone or pistils alone.
Because it bears both kinds of flowers on the same
plant, Veratrum is said to be "polygamous."

The perianth is fashioned of thick material not
unlike that of the magnolia flower. If there has
been plenty of snow the previous winter, most of
the spires are as pure a cream as the cream cup. If
the winter has been "dry" — which is only a com-
parative term as Veratrum only blooms at heights
which are sure to have some snowfall — the flowerets
come out a creamy green tint. Either the more
moisture or the longer rest under snow blankets
effects the color. Of course, any year, there are
always some blossoms that do not shade to green.
The six segments of the perianth contract in the
lower part and are united in the base of the ovary.
The six stamens are attached opposite them, but free
from them. The ovary has three styles which curve
outward from the center and which remain even
after the seed is mature.

Veratrum wishes winged creatures to help in her
fertilization. It covers the lower part of the flower
stalk and sometimes the base of the flowers them-
selves with a white matted wool, in which any
crawling insects would soon become entangled. Be-
ing polyamous, only the blossoms in which there
are pistils — whether a perfect or a pistillate flower-
form capsules. With such a dense florescence, Vera-

104 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

trum has hundreds of seed-cases. As she holds the
dry capsules aloft, the wind rushes sibilantly
through them. If you lie still near a clump of Vera-
trum in September, you can hear all sorts of conver-
sations in most expressive accents.

It is said that the leaves and root of Veratrum are
poisonous to stock. Of the root, I have no knowl-
edge; but I do know from personal observation
during many summers in the Sierras that cattle eat
the leaves and flowers and show no evidence of ill-
ness. Certain insects relish the chlorophyl, the
green tissue, of the leaves. One morning you will
admire a magnificent group of Veratrum, glossy
green leaves and beautiful creamy spire. The next,
the leaves will be blanched, with a thin tissue over
their veins, looking a skeleton under a veil. Who
does the mischief? I do not know; but the work is
swift and deadly.

Because of the similarity in the green base leaves,
some people mistake Veratrum for Skunk Cabbage;
but that is quite a different plant, with yellow flow-
ers and it does not seek the Sierras. The name
often applied to Veratrum, "False Hellebore,"
always makes me impatient. I have never under-
stood why any plant should be dubbed "false."
Even if it resembles some older species, it must
have enough individuality to deserve a name of its
very own. In human nomenclature, we may call the

FLOWERS OF HIGH ALTITUDES 105

son William, after the father, but we do not label
the helpless infant "false," because of the relation-
ship. Now, it is we humans who bestow the name
on the plant, and why should we, even if we recog-
nize a resemblance, give the same title with this
ignominious epithet prefixed? California has quite
a number of plants so ticketed — False Alum-Root,
False Indigo, False Lupine, False Lady's Slipper,
False Mallow, False Pimpernel, False Solomon's
Seal. Any one of these could much better wear an
individual title. "False Hellebore" is especially
absurd. In ancient times, a genus of the Buttercup
Family was named "Hellebore," and it has borne
that name down through the centuries, and is still
thriving under it. A familiar example of it is the
Christmas Rose. Some time in the past, people
began calling Veratrum, which is a true lily, with
no resemblance to the Buttercup Family, "False
Hellebore." There is no reason given for this title,
but I suspect it is because of the medicinal uses of
the two roots. The Veratrum is not now used as
commonly as it was, but veratria is still extracted
from it and used as an external application in obsti-
nate cases of rheumatism and neuralgia. Veratrum
refers to the roots, "truly black'' and calif ornicum
shows that it is a native of our State.

106 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

CHAPTER VI.

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS.

A number of our plants seem to have discarded
the idea of one blossom doing all the work of seed-
making. They have advanced to the stage of spe-
cialization and have their stamens in one flower
and their pistils in another. Most of our trees do
this. Sometimes the stamens and the pistils are on
the same individual plant, as in the Pine, and they
are termed "monoecious," from the Greek, "of one
household." Sometimes the staminate blossoms are
on one plant, and the pistillate on another, as in the
Willow, and these are called "dioecious," or "in
two households."

A lovely example of the dioecious is the Garrya
elliptica, commonly called the Silk-Tassel Tree.
The common name describes the flower chains. Lit-
tle bracts, silk-covered, form cups in which are
grouped several flowers. There are no corollas on
either staminate or pistillate form, but both have
calyxes. There are four stamens in each little
flower, and because the pollen must get to another
tree to reach the waiting stigmas, a great quantity

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 107

GARRYA

Photographed by A. J. Soares

108 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

is produced. You will notice that monoecious and
dioecious plants are profligate in their discharge of
pollen. You have been under the Willow's golden
shower or trod in the sulphur bank under the Pine.
As they must depend upon the agency of variant
zephyrs, they must be prepared to waste much to
accomplish little.

Garrya is called after an official of the Hudson
Bay Company who observed the plant in the North.
The city of Winnipeg, in Manitoba, was originally
Fort Garry after the same explorer and only
assumed its present title in 1873. Elliptica comes
from the shape of the leaves. A sister is the Garrya
fremontii, named for our American explorer, and
commonly called the quinine-bush. The Forty-
niners used a tea of this shrub as a substitute for
quinine in fighting the malaria of the early mining
districts.

In these suggestions for observation of our flora,
we have been considering the plant in its individual
development only, and not in its relations with the
rest of the world; but in your daily life you have
learned that nothing in the world exists by itself.
As trees have certain habits that react upon the wel-
fare of mankind, it is well that we pay attention to
these. Every person, whether man or woman, boy
or girl, has some influence on his associates; and the
tree, too, though never having the unselfish impulses

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 109

that guide the higher man, is a power in its own
vicinity and always an influence for good.

Just consider how the tree helps a hill in rainy
weather. You have noticed places where the rain
has pelted down on the slope, loosened the surface
soil and carried it off to the streams, leaving exposed
the rocky skeleton of the hillside. You remember
that this tragedy occurred in the unprotected
stretches and not where the trees stood guard over
the^ ground. You have seen the roots of some up-
turned tree, and know how many little, fine, hairy
ones there are. The duty of these hairs is to drink
up moisture for the tree's food; but, in doing this,
they hold together the loose particles of soil. Just
try to shake the soil from the finer roots, and you
will find that the hairs have so close a hold on the
particles that they break off with them. If you
have observed closely, you have seen that the little
drinkers occur on the outside of the spreading root-
lets, just beneath the circumference of the leafy
branches. If you will study how the roots of a
small plant grow, you will find out why they are so
distributed.

Sometimes you have sought shelter under a tree
in a shower, because you have observed that the tree
has a habit of shedding the rain, not directly under
it, but at its circumference. The drip falls down
to the waiting little mouths of the outside rootlets,

110 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

and is carried into the tree. Some of it dodges in
between the loose soil and trickles around until it
finds some stream, either over or under ground; but
it never tears away, tumultuously carrying off soil,
as does that enthusiastic raindrop that has just fallen
direct from the clouds.

If there are no trees to hold the earth together,
and to keep the water in check, a heavy rainfall is
likely to do damage in two ways. First, as already
mentioned, by washing away the soil before it
reaches the streams; and, second, by raising the
creeks and rivers so that they overflow their banks
and injure the lower valleys. In the countries
around the Mediterranean, they have been cutting
the trees off their mountains for many generations.
In the middle of the last century, they discovered
that the destructive floods in Southern France, Spain
and Italy were due to there being no trees left at
the sources of the rivers. In France, they began to
plant new forests, and in fifteen years there was a
marked difference in the frequency and the de-
structiveness of the floods.

Trees prevent floods by keeping the water from
flowing off on the surface, and by turning its course
so that it seeks subterranean channels. These under-
ground streams usually find the surface later in the
form of springs. The reason the scientists of Europe
turned their attention to the forest problem was not

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 111

because of the floods, but because the springs of
Spain, France, Italy and Turkey, that had been per-
ennial for ages, were drying up, and the people
were clamoring for their water supply. The differ-
ent Governments became interested in the subject,
and made provision for studying the effects of for-
ests on climate and industries in their countries.
Now, most of the European nations have forest
academies where men go to study all the questions
relating to forestry and to man's relation to it. They
have, too, certain governmental regulations for the
cutting of trees, so that no slope that commands the
water supply of a region shall be denuded. Old
trees can be felled only when young ones are ready
to take their places. This pertains to private owner-
ship. Just because a man holds deed to an acreage
gives him no privilege to cut trees to the detriment
of the public good.

In the United States, we are only beginning to
consider the question. Here in California we are
slaughtering the trees in such a ruthless way that
the foresters of France, Italy, Sweden, Germany
and Russia all hold up their hands in horror at our
ignorance. In our Forest Reserves, there are rules
for scientific lumbering on the public lands, but at
present there is no law to limit the cutting on pri-
vate holdings. John Smith today has the legal right
to fell every standing tree on his possession, no mat-

112 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

ter if he devastate a mountain side and rob the
future generations of food. His moral right lies
with his own conscience. California has so small
a rainfall that we need to be more careful of our
forests than do Oregon, Washington, or our Atlantic
sisters.

Trees really conduce to a greater rainfall. Their
millions of cool leaves, elevated above the earth,
form a condensing influence of the moisture in the
air. You can see how they work if you hold a cold
cover over a steaming pot and turn the floating
steam into drops of water. The trees themselves
send out some moisture into the atmosphere. Have
you ever breathed on a looking-glass and seen the
moisture that came from your lungs? Well, the
leaves of a tree are its lungs, and these billions of
lungs are breathing out moisture all the time. If
you wish to prove it, place a dry glass over a grow-
ing plant, or take a leafy twig and place it through
a card, with its stem in a glass of water, and its
leaves above the card enclosed by a dry glass. Put
it in the sunshine, or even in the light, and see what
will happen in an hour's time.

This habit of the trees keeps the atmosphere near
them moderately cool in the heat of the day. How-
ever, they do not always lower the temperature,
for at night, when the earth is giving out the heat
it gained from the sun during the day, the tree foli-

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 113

age forms a good blanket and shuts some of the
warmth in near the ground. As a result, a forest
region is never so hot nor so cold as a barren district
near by. This is noticeable in canyons a half mile
apart in the Tahoe Reserve. The valley of one
stream lately denuded of its timber is filled at night
with a cold fog which hangs low until the sun is
high next day. An adjacent canyon, with its pri-
meval forest untouched, is always free from this
chilly dampness.

When the ground is well soaked with rain, you
know that the part which gets dry and hard first is
that exposed to the sun, and not that shaded by the
trees. Have you noticed that each leaf on the tree
is so arranged as to secure the greatest exposure to
the sunshine? This endeavor to get light produces
the different shaped leaves we find on the different
kinds of plants. The result is that, while the leaves
do not interfere much with each other's sunlight,
they do make greater shade over the ground. This
prevention of evaporation and the consequent stor-
age of moisture in the soil makes it possible for
many delicate plants to grow under trees months
after their sisters who chose the glade have perished.
You have learned this from observation. In sum-
mer you always seek ferns in woodsy spots. Have
you given the trees a thought of gratitude for their
service?

114 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

In many places, it would not be possible for
smaller plants to exist if the hardier trees had not
for centuries been inserting their roots into rocks,
forcing them apart so that by wind and weather
they are ground into particles. Then, the leaves off
the tree, cast aside when their work is done, mix
with these particles, and finally make a soil in which
their weaker sisters can hold a footing. In this way,
our Sierran peaks have been converted from bare,
stony masses into smiling flower beds.

In return for the benefits the trees confer upon
mankind, we treat them very scurvily. Lumbering
is their greatest enemy, against which they can form
no defensive habits. To lumbering, under scientific
methods, there can be no objection. Civilization
demands buildings and furniture; but it is to the
deforesting of a district and the useless destruction
of a species that the tree-lovers are opposed. In
general, only mature trees should be cut, leaving
enough standing not to interfere with the water sup-
ply. In the cutting, clear room should be left, so
that the young trees will have plenty of space in
which to tower. When it comes to a unique species
like the Sequoia gigantea, what better tribute to our
own sense than to let them stand unharmed for
future generations to enjoy? Their wood is so soft
it does not make durable lumber; and, as grapevine
supports are not now supposed to be so necessary,

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 115

it may be that the Sequoia remaining will have a
better chance for life.

The waste from lumbering, the dead limbs, the
bark, etc., is responsible for two evils to trees. By
covering the fertile earth, it prevents young trees
from growing there; and, even worse, it forms a
combustible mass to encourage a spreading fire.
Forest fires are second only to lumbering in their
enmity to trees. A cigarette or a campfire left smol-
dering is sufficient to set a mountain ablaze. In the
high Sierras, where the soil has been made by the
Pines and the Junipers toiling for ages, the fire will
creep along the underground needles, with not the
slightest evidence on the surface. Suddenly, at a
distance, it will burst forth with a vehemence that
will destroy a whole ancient forest. One can not
be too careful to build his campfire on a rocky
foundation and to be sure it is extinguished before
he leaves. Just pouring a few coffee-pots of water
on a fire built on Sierran soil will not kill it, as it
will a fire on Coast ground. The deceitful thing is
laughing at you under the surface and creeping
from needle to needle. The United States Govern-
ment has a heavy fine for campers who do not put
out their fires; and to make the State more safe, in
1921, the Federal Government located public camps
from the North to the South, through our chain of
Parks and Forest Reserves, where fireplaces are

116 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

built for the convenience of the one who wishes to
live outdoors. There is no longer the excuse of
ignorance for burning up 40,000 acres by an aban-
doned campfire, as was done last summer.

Of domestic animals, the sheep and the goat are
the most destructive to trees. They eat the young
ones closer to the ground than do cattle, and give
them less chance to recuperate. Then, their sharp
hoofs sink in the soil and cut them to pieces. Be-
cause of the necessity to increase our food supply in
the early years of the war, sheep were permitted in
the grazing areas in the Forest Reserves where they
never before had been allowed. In four years, they
have changed the flora of the hillslopes. No plant
has a chance in their pasturage, and whole species
are dying out. There is a high demand in the mar-
ket for these mountain-fed lambs, but it seems to me
we are paying too high a price for the delicacy
with the extinction of some of our rarest flowers.
Of course, with no verdure on the slopes, the earth
will be washed away soon, and only bare rocks
remain, and then there will be no pasturage to en-
courage the entrance of the sheep bands. Then,
bountiful Nature will again play a free hand, and
by toiling for years, build up a new soil and again
secure plant life. Will the same species we have
been enjoying again flourish on those Sierran slopes,
or will their places be usurped by those hardier

SOME SPECIALIZING FLOWERS 117

immigrants who have already transported their
seeds in the wool of the sheep?

If every child in every American school was
taught to memorize and recite and understand Joyce
Kilmer's poem, "Trees," perhaps the next genera-
tion would be wiser than we. Perhaps, then, the
forests of our country would stand as eternal monu-
ments to the spirit of Joyce Kilmer and those other
thousands of brave Americans who lost their mortal
lives on the battlefields of France that the soul of
humanity might be forever free. Every American
who cares for the future of our Nation should know
this poem. I quote here only the first, third and
final verses:

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

"A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

"Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."

—Joyce Kilmer, 1886.

118 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

CHAPTER VII.

SOME PLANTS WITH HEALING QUALITIES.

If there be one life more than another that ren-
ders a man independent of a physician, it is camping
out. The open air, the simple food, the recupera-
tive slumber restore tired nerves and stimulate all
parts of the body to normal activity. Yet, even in
these ideal conditions, sickness sometimes intrudes,
and an acquaintance with Nature's remedies may
save an outing trip from an abrupt ending. Mother
Earth seems to have intended the rovers of the
Western woods to be their own doctors, for at every
hand, whether at sea sands or in Sierran stretches,
she offers him a cure for every ill.

Many people who camp in the lower altitudes of
California have their vacation spoiled by the ubi-
quitous poison-oak, even though hitherto they had
never succumbed to its attacks. Now, near this
same insidious poison, wherever it grows in the
State, Nature has planted an antidote.

The best is Rhamnus calif ornica, known as "cof-
fee-berry," "pigeon-berry," or "yellow-root," in
different localities. It is a shrub from four to
eighteen feet high, with long leathery leaves and

SOME HEALING PLANTS 119

small greenish-white flowers. The fruit is black
and globular, and contains two or three seeds similar
to the coffee bean. A wash made by steeping leaves
and twigs is a preventive for poison-oak and also a
cure. If the poison be severe, it is wise to take a
dose of the tea internally at the same time one is
making the external application. The virtues of
this plant were well known to the Indians, who
pointed them out to the Spanish padres. These
found it so efficacious that they bestowed on it the
name it still bears in commerce, Cascara sagrada,
or sacred bark. Rhamnus is the ancient Greek name
for the genus. Another species, also a native shrub,
is Rhamnus purshiana, named for a Russian botan-
ist. The genus is considered one of the most valua-
ble laxatives known in the medicinal world to-day,
and each year tons of the bark and twigs are ex-
ported from the State to the pharmaceutical labora-
tories of the East.

Two other California plants form with Rhamnus
the three most important additions to the world's
pharmacopoeia during the last century. These are
the Yerba Santa, or "Holy Plant," and the Grin-
delia, both known to the Indians from time imme-
morial. Both are effective in colds, or in any trou-
ble of the pulmonary system, and both may save
the camper much anxiety. Yerba Santa grows on
dry hillsides in western California, and reaches

120 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

from three to five feet. Its leaves are long, narrow,
stiff, leathery and sticky; they are edged with rigid
teeth, and are covered underneath with a fine wool,
through which the prominent veins protrude. As

if all these precautions
were not enough to repel
animals, Yerba Santa
makes her leaves bitterly
aromatic. The corollas
are funnel-shaped and
vary in color from white
to violet. The leaves are
said to be a good substi-
tute for tobacco, either
for smoking or for
chewing. For exporting
to the druggists, the
whole plant is cut, stalks
and all. The botanical
name of Yerba Santa is
Eriodictyon, from the Greek, referring to the wool
and the netted veins of the leaves. The species
shown here, calif ornicum, is not so wooly as its sis-
ters.

The Grindelia is sometimes called the Gum
Plant, the Resin Weed, or the August Flower. It
grows from two to four feet high, and its bright
yellow flowers, which appear in summer, are similar

YERBA S'ANTA

SOME HEALING PLANTS 121

Photographed by A. J. Snares
GRINDELIA

122 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

to those of the Sunflower. Its floral head acts just
as that of Seaside Daisy does in attracting insects
and in dispersing its seeds; but because it blooms in
the open in the hottest season of the year, it has to
take precautions of which Daisy has no need. If its
buds were left exposed to the full glare of the sun,
they would be burned dry before they could open
To ward against this, Grindelia covers each bud
with a thick milky gum. In this gum are the heal-
ing qualities which have won Grindelia such esteem
from mankind. Each summer about five or six
inches of the top twigs are cut off and are shipped
by tons to the East. Later it is sent back to us in
the form of a medicine called Grindelia, which is
prescribed to soothe whooping cough, bronchitis,
asthma, and kindred complaints. It is also efficient,
taken internally and applied externally, in banish-
ing poison-oak. Grindelia is named for Hierony-
mus Grindel, a Russian botanist, who was a pro-
fessor at both Riga and Dorpat. Robusta, the
species, is so called because of its strength.

Even more common than Coffee Berry, Yerba
Santa, or Grindelia, is Manzanita. It is a great
blessing to the valley dweller who ascends to higher
altitudes. Rarely a summer passes that a light
scourge of dysentery does not attack Sierra camps,
chiefly due to an overindulgence in mountain water.
A tea of Manzanita will cure every case. Indeed,

SOME HEALING PLANTS 123

Photographed by A. J. Scares
MANZANITA

124 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

it has been effective when a physician's medicines
have proved powerless. Manzanita is also used in
compounding medicines to cure catarrh of the
throat and stomach. Manzanita belongs to the
beautiful Heath Family, and her little pink and
white chimneys are well planned for securing aid
in her seed-making. Her seeds have given her both
the common and the scientific names. "Manzanita"
is the Spanish for "little apple/' and Arctostaphylos
is the Greek for "bear grapes," because the animals
love the fruit. This species is called nummularia
because its leaves are shining with a glitter similar
to the shine of a coin.

Another of our medicinal plants that still bears
its Spanish name is Yerba Buena. The Indians used
tea of it to allay fever and indigestion. They called
it to the notice of the Franciscan Fathers, who, rec-
ognizing its worth, named it Yerba Buena, "the
good herb." It makes a palatable beverage by pour-
ing water over it and draining at once. A stronger
decoction is needed for medicine. Aside from its
dainty, graceful lines and its refreshing fragrance,
Yerba Buena is interesting to observe as an individ-
ual. Notice how it sends down new roots wherever
its stems touch the ground. Run your finger along
its stem and feel the four corners, proving its mem-
bership in that well-known healing tribe, the Mints.
Yerba Buena is Micromeria Douglasii in botany,

SOME HEALING PLANTS 125

Micromeria being for its small flowers. Douglasii
is for David Douglas, a Scotch botanist, who en-
tered Washington and Oregon in 1825, and reached
California in 1830. He remained here collecting
until 1832, gathering over five hundred species. A
few years after, he lost his life in the Sandwich
Islands, now Hawaii.

Yerba Buena was the first name of that part of
San Francisco now the business section. The Pre-
sidio on the Golden Gate was Presidio de San Fran-
cisco d'Asis; the Mission in the warm belt was
the Mission de San Francisco d'Asis; but the early
settlement in the cove on the east was called Yerba
Buena because of the delicate vine covering its
slopes. Yerba Buena it remained until after the
American Occupation. Its change of title was due
to an inspiration which gave a vision of the future
of our city.

The first American Alcalde of San Francisco,
Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett, heard rumors
that Mariano G. Vallejo and Robert Semple had
contracted together to start a town on the Straits of
Carquinez which would be a rival of Yerba Buena
and that they had named it Francisca after General
Vallejo's wife. Alcalde Bartlett realized that any
town on the Bay of San Francisco bearing the name
similar to it would attract more attention from the

126 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

outside world than would one whose title was Yerba
Buena. When Vallejo and Semple brought their
contract to be recorded, as, according to Spanish
law, a contract to be legal had to be recorded in the
office of the nearest Alcalde, Bartlett informed them
that he had just issued a proclamation on January
30, 1847, changing the name of the town of Yerba
Buena to San Francisco, and he advised them to
change the name of their town to something less
confusing. They fussed and stormed. Each side
drew adherents. Even the wise Thomas Larkin
joined his friends Vallejo and Semple, and declared
that, as it was known ahead that the name of their
town was to be Francisca, the fact that it was not
legally recorded before January 30 should not rob
them of the title. The editor of the one newspaper
in the territory refused to recognize the change, and
for several weeks still headed his sheet, "Yerba
Buena." Under Spanish law, and it still reigned
in California in 1847, the decree of the Alcalde was
final. So our city gained the name of its Bay and
of the Patron Saint whose sons had introduced civi-
lization into the West, and Francisca, the dreamed-
of metropolis on the Straits of Carquinez, took an-
other name from the baptismal list of Senora Val-
lejo, and has come down to us today as the town; of
Benicia. But Yerba Buena is not banished from
our geographies. It still is the legal title of the

SOME HEALING PLANTS

127

island east of San Francisco whereon is situated
the United States Naval Training Station.

Another member of the Mint Family that helps
allay physical woes and that is named for a noted
botanist is our Penny Royal, or Monardella. Its
species are scattered broadly over the State. One,
the odoratissima, refreshes many a hot Sierran trail
with its aroma. If its branches be hung around
one's neck and under the hatband, the voracious
mosquitoes, which linger for three weeks in the
locality of each melted
snowbank, will be put
to flight. A weak tea
of Penny Royal is a
good substitute for the
article of commerce,
and a stronger solution
is good for colic or as a
general blood purifier.

Monardella is after
Nicolas Monardes, a
Spanish botanist, who
was born in 1512, and
who wrote many tracts
on the medicinal and
other useful plants, es-
pecially those of the New World. Living just
after Columbus, in that adventurous era when

PENNY ROYAL

128 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

Spain was dazzling Europe with the results of her
seeking a passage to the Spice Islands by crossing
the Atlantic, Monardes always mentioned what we
know as the Western Hemisphere as "The Indies."
He was the first scientist to write descriptions of
these newly discovered plants of the Indies, and his
works created much interest in all the civilized
countries. By 1579, they had been translated into
Italian, French and English, in the order men-
tioned. The horse mints were first named in his
honor, Monarda. When, later, new species of
Penny Royal were found in America, their genus
was called Monardella, or little Monarda. I am
particularly glad that we have among our native
plants one that keeps forever green the name of the
most illustrious botanist of the sixteenth century.

Lanceolata, the species pictured, is named for its
leaves. It grows in the Coast regions, and was well
known by the Spanish Californians under the name
of Poleo, which is Spanish for Penny Royal. Our
English common name does not mean a royal rem-
edy at a low price, as imagination might lead us to
believe; but it is derived from the Latin through
the French, and means a royal remedy against fleas.
This virtue in the herb is what makes the mosqui-
toes dislike it so.

There is no excuse for a camper suffering any
common disease to want a remedy. If he have

SOME HEALING PLANTS 129

colds, Nature offers him, in addition to the plants
already mentioned, the choice of a tea of fragrant
elderberry blossoms; a decoction of horehound,
which, by the way, is only an immigrant in our
State; a tincture of sunflower, which is also adopted
as an official drug for asthma, throat diseases and
influenza; or an extract of wild peony, which will
also allay dyspepsia.

If he be the victim of catarrh, he can lie on a
pillow of the common everlasting; make a tea from
the covering of the root of the mountain birch; or,
if he be south of Santa Barbara, use a snuff of dried
wooly blue curls. This flower was called romero,
or rosemary, by the Spanish Californians, and by
that name it is used in formal medicine. Fried in
oil, it was used as an ointment for ulcers, and it is a
valuable liniment for all muscular troubles.

If he succumbs to fever, he can make a tea of the
button bush, which is also a good laxative, a tonic,
and a cough cure; or a tea of the blue-eyed grass,
which will sustain a patient several days without
other food; or an infusion of bedstraw, whose name
was earned by one of the species filling the Manger
at Bethlehem.

If he suffers from rheumatism, there is the dog-
bane, the root of the skunk cabbage, which is also
made into a salve for ringworm and white swelling;
the white-veined shin leaf, whose name is borrowed

130 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

from England, where the peasants use a species for
plasters for bruises and sores; or the clematis.

One often gets cut when leading the open life, but
there need be no fear of infection if Nature's effi-
cient antiseptic, Clema-
tis ligusticifolia, is at
hand. This plant has
evolved its leaf stems
into an admirable climb-
ing apparatus, by means
of which its blossoms
are flung out over bushes
and trees, sometimes up
to thirty feet. It needs
its flowers in full free
air, for it is like the
Garryi, with staminate
flowers on one plant and
pistillate on another.
Depending largely upon
the wind to carry its pollen, it does not pay overdue
attention to its floral envelope. It has no corolla at
all, but its sepals are petalloid, a rich cream color.
When the seeds are fertilized, each pistil develops
a long silky tail, which is really more conspicuous
than the blossom. These tails twist together, and
the soft balls sail off blithesomely to new homes.
The Spanish Californians valued this plant, call-

CLEMATIS

SOME HEALING PLANTS 131

ing it "Yerba de Chibato" Literally, this is "the
herb of the young kid," but liberally translated, it
becomes "the herb of the shepherd or goatsherd,"
as these custodians of flocks made a wash of it with
which they cleansed and cured their animals'
wounds. It is excellent for a cut from barbed wire.
Clematis is from the Greek, meaning long, lithe
branches," and ligusticifolia is practically the same
from the Latin, the "leaves tying themselves tight-
ly." Another species, the lasiantha, has larger
flowers, and its leaves are covered with a soft silk.
After dwelling on the remedies Nature provides,
it may be as well to mention some of the plants one
should avoid tasting. The two daturas, the large-
flowered white one and the common jimson weed,
are both poisonous. Both have a maddening effect
on those who eat them. The former was used by
the Indians to stimulate their warriors before enter-
ing battle, and it was fed to children to produce a
trance in which they could predict the future. The
bulb of the zygadene has earned its title of "death
camaso"; the larkspur and the holly-leaved cherry
are both poisonous to sheep and cattle; the beautiful
azalea hides death in flower, leaves and root; the
white nightshade is equally vicious; the largest flow-
ered phacelia poisons many persons by the mere
gathering; the monkshood, or aconite, is disastrous
to animals; and the euphorbia poisons when brought

132 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW

into contact with wounds, and it affects the eyes if
held near them.

However, the helpful plants far exceed the poi-
sonous ones, both in number of species and in fre-
quency of individuals. Having acquired the habit
of observation, the camper can wander to the utmosj
wilds of the State feeling as secure from sickness as
if accompanied by his private physician.

While the habits of wild plants are the results
of centuries of adaptation to environment and are
formed quite independent of any human influence,
their titles and their transportations and their uses
are interwoven with the history of man. If you dip
into the study of our native flora, you are piling up
great pleasures for your future. You not only gain
new physical strength in following them to their
homes and new mental agility in observing their
variations; but through the names of even the com-
monest species, you step into the realms of mythol-
ogy and adventure and romance.

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