Part 21

A charming little vine, without prickles, the stems from one to three feet long and rooting at the joints, trailing over rocks and moss and creeping along the ground, ornamented with pretty leaves, with from three to five leaflets, and sprinkled with white flowers, half an inch or more across, and often also with juicy, red raspberries. This grows in rich soil, in mountain woods.

Creeping Raspberry--R. pedatus.]

There are a good many kinds of Strawberry, natives of the north temperate zone and the Andes. They are perennials, with running stems, rooting at the joints; the flowers white, or rarely pink, with slender, often drooping pedicels, forming loose clusters; the flower-stalks springing from tufts of root-leaves, which have three, toothed leaflets and a pair of sheathing stipules at the base of the long leaf-stalk; the sepals five, alternating with sepal-like bractlets; the petals five, with short claws and not notched; the stamens numerous, with slender filaments; the receptacle roundish or cone-shaped, becoming enlarged, red and juicy, in fruit, bearing minute, dry akenes, scattered over its surface, or set in pits. Fragum is the Latin name for strawberry, meaning "fragrant."

A slender little plant, growing in light shade, in rich soil, along streams, in rocky woods and producing runners very freely. The stipules are papery and reddish, the thin, dull-green leaves are slightly silky on the upper side, when young, and the leaflets are sharply and coarsely toothed, somewhat wedge-shaped, broad at the tips, the two side ones uneven at base. There is usually a little bract, halfway up, on both the flower-stalk and the leaf-stalk. The flowers are nearly an inch across, with fuzzy, bright yellow centers, and the fruit is light red, with a good flavor, somewhat cone-shaped, the akenes scattered over its smooth, shining, even surface and but slightly attached to it.

A charming plant, a few inches tall, with thick, glossy, dark green leaves, paler and hairy on the under side, and pure-white flowers, with bright yellow centers. They are about an inch across and are well set off by the masses of dark foliage. This has large, delicious berries and grows abundantly on beaches and sand dunes near the sea, from San Francisco to Alaska. It is often cultivated.

PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae.

A very large family, including many important plants, such as Clover, Alfalfa, Peas, and Beans; herbs, shrubs, vines, and trees, distinguished principally by the flower and fruit, resembling the butterfly-like corolla and simple pod of the common Pea; leaves alternate, usually compound, with leaflets and stipules; calyx five-toothed or five-cleft; petals five. The upper petal, or "standard," large, covering the others in the bud, the two at the sides standing out like "wings," the two lower ones united by their edges to form a "keel," enclosing the stamens, usually ten, and the single pistil with a curved style; the ovary superior.

There are numerous kinds of Anisolotus, widely distributed, common, difficult to distinguish; mostly herbs, some slightly shrubby; leaves with two or many, toothless leaflets; calyx-teeth nearly equal; petals with claws, free from the stamens, wings adhering to the keel, incurved, blunt or beaked; stamens joined by their filaments, in two sets of one and nine, anthers all alike; style incurved; pods two-valved, often compressed between the seeds, never inflated. These plants have several common names, such as Bird-foot, Trefoil, Cat's-clover, etc., and are called Crowtoes by Milton.

A gay and charming kind, with smooth stems, spreading on the ground, light green leaves, with five or more leaflets, and flowers about half an inch long, with a golden-yellow standard, pink or magenta wings and wine-colored keel, forming a flattish cluster, the contrasting colors giving a vivid effect. This grows in damp places along the sea-coast.

A shrubby, branching plant, a foot and a half high, forming a pretty clump, two or three feet across, with downy, gray-green stems and foliage, sprinkled with clover-like heads of yellow flowers. The leaflets are slightly thickish, covered with silky down, the twigs and young leaves silvery-white. The small flowers are a soft shade of warm-yellow, and the buds form neat, fuzzy, silvery balls. This grows on dry hillsides in the Catalina Islands.

Bird-foot--Anisolotus argyraeus.]

This is only a few inches high, with slender, slightly downy stems, branching and spreading, and bright green leaves, with seven or more, small, narrow leaflets, slightly thickish, with some minute, bristly hairs. The few flowers are about a quarter of an inch long, mostly single, bright yellow, tinged with red, fading to orange, and have a sort of miniature prettiness. This grows in the south.

An attractive little perennial, forming low clumps, harmonious in coloring, of pale gray-green, downy foliage, sprinkled with small clusters of charming little flowers, each less than half an inch long, various shades of yellow, and arranged in a circle. The pods are hairy and it grows on sunny, sandy slopes.

Though the flowers are small and the foliage scanty, the shaded effect of mingled yellow and orange of these plants is rather pretty, as we see them by the wayside. The many, long, smooth, reed-like stems grow from two to five feet high, branching from the root, somewhat woody below, loosely spreading, or sometimes half lying on the ground. The leaves are almost smooth, very small and far apart, with from three to six, oblong leaflets, and the flowers, from a quarter to half an inch long, are clustered in close little bunches along the stem, forming long wands, tipped with green buds, and shading downward through the bright yellow of the larger buds to the orange of the open flowers and the dull red of the faded ones. The pod is incurved, tipped with the long style. This is common and widely distributed, a perennial, but said to live only two or three years. In the south it often makes symmetrical little bushes, pleasing in appearance. It is a valuable bee-plant. A. Wrìghtii of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado, is quite leafy, with erect stems and branches, bushy and woody at base, the small leaflets from three to five in number. The flowers, without pedicles, are much like the last, but over half an inch long, yellow becoming reddish, with a blunt keel, and scattered all over the plant.

Deer-weed--Anisolotus glaber.

A. strigosus.]

There are several kinds of Thermopsis, of North America and Asia; stout, perennial herbs, with woody rootstocks; leaflets three; stipules conspicuous, leaf-like; flowers large, yellow, with short, bracted flower-stalks; calyx bell-shaped, five-cleft; standard broad, in the western species, shorter than the oblong wings, keel nearly straight, blunt, the same length as the wings; stamens ten, separate, curving in; style slightly curving in, stigma small; pod flat, long or oblong, straight or curved, with a very short stalk and several seeds. Thermopsis, sometimes called False Lupine, is distinguished from Lupinus by its stamens, which are separate, instead of united into a sheath. The Greek name means "lupine-like."

A very handsome, thrifty-looking plant, about two feet high, the smooth, bright green foliage contrasting finely with the clusters of clear yellow flowers, each about three-quarters of an inch long. The erect, straight pods, two or three inches long, are silky and also the calyxes and buds. This thrives in the mountains, up to an altitude of nine thousand feet, in somewhat moist spots, and its fresh coloring is most attractive. The foliage seems to me to be especially handsome in northern Arizona, but these plants are also beautiful in the Utah canyons. The flowers are scentless and last a long time in water. T. Califórnica has silvery, silky foliage and is common in California, in damp ground in the hills.

There are many kinds of Parosela, of western North America, Mexico, and the Andes, no one sort common; generally shrubs; leaves almost always compound; leaflets odd in number, small, toothless, with minute stipules, often with glandular dots; flowers small, in terminal clusters; calyx with nearly equal, long, occasionally feathery teeth; corolla with wings and keel longer than the standard, their claws adhering to the lower part of the stamen-tube, but the claw of the small, heart-shaped standard free; stamens nine or ten, filaments united, anthers alike; ovary with a short stalk, or none, style awl-shaped; pod small, membranous, included in the calyx, usually with one seed. P. spinòsa, the Smoke Tree, or Ghost Tree, of western Arizona, is almost leafless, with grayish or whitish branches.

This little spiny desert shrub grows two or three feet high and is conspicuous on account of the odd contrast in color between its foliage and flowers. The woody stems and branches are very pale in color and the very small leaflets, so narrow and stiff that they look like evergreen needles, are covered with pale down and have glandular dots. All over this colorless foliage are sprinkled small spikes of indigo-blue flowers, so dark in color that the effect, against a background of desert sand, is of pale gray, speckled with black. It has a pleasant smell like balsam.

A low, desert shrub, with slender, abruptly branching stems and small, soft, thickish leaves, usually with three leaflets, obscurely toothed, the stems and leaves all thickly covered with white down. The flower-clusters are about three-quarters of an inch across, like a small clover-head, the woolly calyxes giving a yellowish-gray effect to the whole cluster, which is ornamented with a circle of tiny purple flowers. The effect of these specks of dark color on the pale bush is odd; the plant smells like balsam and grows in sandy soil.

This is the only kind, an evergreen shrub, flourishing on dry hills in the Coast Ranges, with tough, crooked branches and stout spines, forming chaparral so dense that it is impossible to penetrate. It grows from three to eight feet high, the gnarled, knotty, black branches terminating in long spines, which are often clothed with small leaves nearly to the end, the leaves with one to three, small leaflets and without stipules. The bush is often covered with quantities of pretty, bright, deep purplish-pink flowers, three-quarters of an inch long, forming a fine mass of color. The calyx has four, short, broad teeth; the petals are equal, the standard roundish, with the sides turned back and a paler spot at base, the wings oblong, the keel straight; the filaments of the ten stamens not united; the pod is two inches long, flat, straight, sickle-shaped when young. This very rarely produces fruit. Stevenson was probably describing this shrub when he wrote, "Even the low thorny chaparral was thick with pea-like blossoms."

Chaparral Pea--Xylothermia montana.

Parosela Emoryi.]

There are so many western kinds of Lupinus that it is hopeless for the amateur to distinguish them; herbs, sometimes shrubs; leaves palmately-compound, stipules adhering to the base of the leaf-stalk, leaflets, more than three in number, usually closing at mid-day; flowers showy, in terminal racemes; calyx deeply toothed, two-lipped; standard broad, the edges rolling back, wings lightly adhering above, enclosing the incurved, pointed keel, sometimes beaked; style incurved, stigma bearded; stamens united by their filaments, alternate anthers shorter; pod two-valved, leathery, flat, oblong; seeds two to twelve. Lupines always have palmately-divided leaves, and are never trailing, twining, or tendril-bearing and thus may be superficially distinguished from Vetches and Peas, and from Thermopsis, by the united stamens.

A stately perennial, about three feet high, with stout, branching reddish, slightly downy stems, bearing several tall spires of flowers. The handsome leaves are bright green, smooth on the upper side, slightly downy, but not silvery, on the under, with from seven to thirteen leaflets, and the flower-cluster is very erect and compact, eight or ten inches long, beautifully shaded in color, from the pale, silky buds at the tip, to the blue and purple of the open flowers, which are about five-eighths of an inch long, with a lilac standard, tipped with purple. The upper flowers have white wings, veined with blue, and a green calyx, with reddish teeth, and the lower flowers have bright blue wings, veined with purple, and a reddish-purple calyx. This grows in wet places.

A conspicuous shrub, four to eight feet high, with a thick trunk, gnarled and twisted below, with purplish, downy branches, silvery twigs and dull bluish-green leaves, downy on the under side, with about nine leaflets. The fine flower clusters are sometimes a foot long, composed of beautiful canary-yellow flowers, deliciously sweet-scented. This is easily recognized by its size and fragrance and is common in sandy soil near the sea, where it has been found very useful, as its very long roots keep the sand dunes from shifting.

One of the prettiest and most conspicuous kinds, for its coloring is unusual, with branching, downy, leafy stems, about a foot high, thickish leaflets, pale bluish-green in color and rather hairy, and fragrant flowers, over half an inch long, with rose-colored wings and a yellow standard, changing to orange in fading. The combination of pink, orange, and yellow is very striking. This grows in warm, dry spots in Yosemite, and other places in the Sierras and Coast Ranges. L. citrìnus, of similar situations, has all yellow flowers.