Part 22

A handsome perennial, forming fine clumps on dry, gravelly hillsides, with several, slender, rather downy stems, from one to two feet tall, the leaflets six to nine in number, rather bluish-green, downy on the upper side, paler and silkier on the under. The younger leaves and calyxes are silvery with down, the flower buds form long, pretty, silvery clusters, resembling ears of wheat in form, and the flowers are in handsome loose racemes, from five to six inches long, of various shades of blue, mostly bright and somewhat purplish, the standard with a little white at its base and the keel purplish. The pod is covered with silky hairs and contains from three to five seeds. This is very common in Utah, handsome and conspicuous, and when growing in quantities, among Balsam-roots, Forget-me-nots, and Wild Geraniums, makes a combination unequaled in any flower-garden.

A handsome plant, with a very stout, branching stem and soft, bluish-green leaves, with silky hairs on the edges and under sides, forming a fine clump of foliage, from which the flower-stalks stand up very stiff and straight. The cluster is most symmetrical in form and the flowers, which are nearly three-quarters of an inch long, are a beautiful, pearly white, tinged with yellow at the base of the standard and with creamy buds. The lower lobe of the calyx is large and very dark green, the stems have a pale, satiny surface, sprinkled with hairs and the leaflets are ten or eleven in number. This grows in the grass along the roadsides and is common around San Bernardino.

Quaker Bonnets--L. laxiflorus.]

There are numerous kinds of Lathyrus, widely distributed and difficult to distinguish. In technical character and habit they very much resemble Vetches, but sometimes have no tendrils and the flowers are larger, the leaflets are broader, and the style is flattened and hairy, not only at the tip, but also along the upper side. The leaflets are equal in number, the leaf-stalk usually terminating in a branching tendril; the flowers are in clusters; the calyx with five teeth, the upper commonly shorter; the style flattened and usually twisted; the pod flat or cylindrical, with no partitions between the seeds. Lathyrus is the old Greek name of the Pea.

This has flowers resembling the cultivated Sweet Pea, but the whole effect is more airy and graceful. It is a loosely-trailing vine, with slender, angled stems, long, narrow leaflets, eight in number, and three-cleft tendrils. The flowers are about three-quarters of an inch long, brightly yet delicately tinted with shaded pink and violet, and are so lightly poised on the long slender stalks that they look like a row of butterflies about to take flight. This grows on the plateau in the Grand Canyon and all through Arizona in the mountains.

A smooth, trailing perennial, very graceful, with beautifully tinted flowers and bright green foliage. The stipules are large, broad and leafy, and the leaflets are usually ten in number, veined and thin in texture, one or two inches long, with tendrils. The flowers are nearly an inch long, from four to eight in a cluster, on a long flower-stalk; the standard pinkish-lilac, delicately veined with purple, the wings pale lilac and the keel cream-color. The flowers, as they fade, although keeping their form, gradually change in color to all shades of blue, turquoise, and sea-green, finally becoming buff, so that the effect of the whole cluster is iridescent and very lovely. This grows on mountain slopes, often in oak-thickets, clambering over the bushes to a height of several feet and clinging to everything with its tendrils.

This has such glorious flowers, so superb in color and form, that it is by far the handsomest of its kind and not to be mistaken for any other. The stout, smooth, stems are dark green, the stipules small, and the leaves are smooth, slightly thickish and stiffish, rather dark bluish-green, with about ten leaflets. The flowers are over two inches long, from the tip of the standard to the end of the keel, and form a massive cluster of eight or ten blossoms, hanging on drooping pedicels and shading in color from the pale-salmon of the buds to the brilliant rose, carmine, and wine-color of the open flowers, the older flowers being very dark and rich. Only a small part of the flower-cluster is given in the picture. These plants, which are found around San Diego and farther south, clamber over the neighboring bushes to a height of several feet and adorn them with wonderful color, giving an effect of tropical splendor.

There are innumerable kinds of Astragalus; most abundant in Asia, usually perennial herbs, sometimes woody; leaves usually with numerous leaflets, flowers narrow, in spikes, with long flower-stalks; calyx tube-shaped, with nearly equal teeth; petals usually narrow, with slender claws, standard erect and somewhat oblong, wings oblong, keel with blunt tip, about the same length as the wings; stamens ten, in two sets of nine and one; pods numerous, more or less two-celled, often inflated, so the wind can distribute the small seeds, therefore these plants are often called Rattleweed. Another name is Milk Vetch and many kinds are called Loco-weed, from the word "loco," or crazy, because they are poisonous to horses and cattle. I was told by a cow-boy in Arizona that "horses eat this because it tastes sweet, but it gives them water on the brain and they die, unless the skull is split with an axe and the water is let out!"

A decorative plant, its pale flowers contrasting well with the dark foliage, with stout, branching stems, from two to three feet tall, hairy above, and many leaflets, dark-green on the upper side, hairy and paler on the under. The flowers are half an inch or more long, with a pale, yellowish-green, downy calyx and cream-white corolla, and form a fine cluster, from four to ten inches long. The egg-shaped pods are much inflated and almost papery, an inch or more long. This grows on sea-cliffs and in sandy soil near the coast.

A pretty plant, unusual in coloring, the short stems spreading on the ground and springing from a short, perennial root; the foliage all very pale bluish-gray, covered with silvery down, the thickish leaflets from eleven to seventeen in number, the younger leaves and flower buds almost white. The flowers are about an inch long, in loose clusters, with flower-stalks from three to four inches long; the calyx long, pinkish-gray and downy, the standard pale pink, the wings deeper purplish-pink, the keel yellowish-pink. The pod is short, leathery, woolly, and stemless. This grows in dry, gravelly soil and in favorable situations makes low, circular clumps of foliage, suggesting the old-fashioned crochet lamp-mats that we used to see in New England farmhouses, for the pale leaves are symmetrically arranged in neat clusters and ornamented at intervals with pink flowers. Unlike, however, the worsted ornament, its coloring is delicately harmonious and beautiful.

A very slender plant, with trailing stems, one or two feet long, the leaflets odd in number and downy on the under side. The flowers are about half an inch long, with a whitish, downy calyx and a bright purple corolla, shading to white at the base. This grows in mountain canyons and looks a good deal like a Vetch, except that it has no tendrils.

This is a straggling plant, a foot and a half tall, smooth all over, with stout stems and many bluish-green leaflets. The flowers are over half an inch long, with a very pale calyx and yellowish-white corolla, forming a rather pretty cluster, about three inches long. The pods are each over an inch long and much inflated, forming a large bunch, odd and very conspicuous in appearance.

Pods of Rattle-weed--A. pomonensis.

Pink Lady-fingers--Astragalus Utahensis.]

An attractive plant, about a foot high, with straggling, reddish stems and delicate foliage. The flowers are over half an inch long, with a hairy calyx and pale lilac and white corolla, and form pretty clusters about two inches long.

There are many kinds of Hedysarum, some from Africa and only a few in this country; perennial herbs, sometimes shrubby; the leaflets toothless, odd in number; the flowers in handsome racemes, with bracts, on stalks from the angles of the stem; the calyx with five, nearly equal teeth; the standard rather large, round, or inverted heart-shaped, narrow at base, the wings oblong, shorter than the standard; the keel blunt, nearly straight, longer than the wings; the stamens in two sets of nine and one, not adhering to the corolla; the pod long, flat, and oddly jointed into several, strongly-veined, one-seeded, roundish divisions, which separate when ripe. The name is from the Greek, meaning "sweet-broom."

A very handsome and decorative plant, with large brilliant flower-clusters, contrasting well with the foliage and making spots of vivid color on dry plains and hillsides. It has many stems, springing from a rootstock, which are from eight to fifteen inches long, yellowish-green, ridged, and covered with inconspicuous down, the leaflets are light bluish-green, thickish, nine to seventeen in number, and the bracts are thin and dry. The flowers are about three-quarters of an inch long, with a pinkish-green and downy calyx, and the corolla all bright deep pink, fading to blue, with a veined standard. The pod has from three to five divisions. This flourishes at rather high altitudes, up to seven thousand feet, and is conspicuously beautiful near the entrance to Ogden Canyon in Utah.

There are a great many kinds of Trifolium, or Clover, difficult to distinguish; low herbs; leaves usually with three leaflets, usually toothed; stipules adhering to the leaf-stalks; flowers in heads or spikes; stamens usually in two sets of nine and one; pods small, mostly enclosed in the calyx, usually with one to six seeds.

This is very common from the coast to the Sierra foothills, but there are many named varieties. It is smooth all over and grows from eight inches to two feet high, with spreading stems and narrow leaflets, which are toothless, or have teeth and bristles on the edges. The pinkish-purple flowers form a broad head, over an inch across, with an involucre.

This has queer-looking flowers and is conspicuous on that account. The branching stems are a foot or more tall, the stipules are large, with papery margins, and the leaves are bright green, with a paler spot near the middle of each of the leaflets, which are toothed, or sometimes only bristly on the edges, and the flowers form a head about an inch and a quarter across, with a broad involucre. The calyx is very small and the corolla is cream-color, becoming much inflated and changing to deep pink as the flower withers. The effect of the cluster is curiously puffy and odd in color. This grows rankly in low alkaline and brackish places.

There are many kinds of Psoralea, widely distributed; ours are perennial herbs, without tendrils, the leaves with three or five leaflets, with glandular dots on them and usually bad-smelling. The flowers are white or purplish, and the pod is short, with only one seed.

This is a rather pleasing plant, for the foliage is pretty, though the flowers are too dull in color to be effective. It is almost smooth all over, a foot or more tall, with several spreading stems and rich green leaves, thin in texture and giving out a rather pleasant aromatic smell when crushed. The flowers are less than half an inch long, with a somewhat hairy calyx, covered with dots and becoming inflated in fruit, and a yellowish-white corolla, more or less tinged with purple. This is common in the woods of the Coast Ranges. The foliage was used as tea by the early settlers.

Clover--T. tridentatum.

Native California Tea--Psoralea physodes.]

There are many kinds of Cytisus, natives of Europe, Asia, and Africa, named for Cythrus, one of the Cyclades, where the first species was found.

A handsome branching shrub, about five feet high, with almost smooth or quite hairy leaves, with three, toothless leaflets, and fine clusters of flowers, each an inch or more long, with a yellow two-lipped calyx and a golden-yellow corolla, deeper in color at the base of the standard and at the tips of the wings; the stamens ten, in one set; the style curved in. The pod is flat, smooth on the sides, but hairy along the edges, one or two inches long and curling when ripe. This is said to have been brought to California by Cornish miners.

SENNA FAMILY. Cassiaceae.

A large family, most of them tropical; trees, shrubs, and herbs, with flowers more or less irregular in form, but not like the flowers of the true Pea, though sometimes resembling them; calyx usually with five sepals; corolla with five petals, overlapping in the bud, the petal which corresponds to the standard folded within the two side petals, instead of covering them, as in the Pea flower; stamens, ten, or fewer, in number, usually not united; ovar superior; fruit a pod, mostly splitting into two halves, containing one to many seeds. To this family belong the handsome Red-bud, or Judas Tree, of our woodlands, both East and West; the spiny Honey-locust; the Kentucky Coffee-tree, with its fine foliage, of the central and eastern states; the interesting Palo Verde, with greatly reduced leaves, of the Southwest, and the fine Bird-of-paradise flowers, of the tropics and Mexico, one or two of which are just beginning to grow wild in southern Arizona and California.