Part 35

Small Prickly Gilia--G. pungens.]

An unusual-looking, conspicuous, shrubby plant, suggesting some kind of small prickly pine or cedar, with lovely flowers. It forms large straggling clumps, about two feet high, with many woody stems and rich-green foliage, the leaves cut into small, spreading, needle-like lobes, and ornamented with numbers of brilliant flowers. They are an inch or more across, with bright pink petals and a white "eye," and are most delicate in texture, with a satiny sheen and smelling sweet like violets. This grows on hills and is very beautiful on Mt. Lowe.

This varies a good deal in color and beauty. The stems are smooth and slender, from one to two feet tall, and the leaves are alternate, smooth or downy, delicately cut into many fine divisions. The numerous small flowers are funnel-form, with projecting stamens, and form a close round head, which is an inch or more across, without bracts. The calyx is more or less woolly, with sharp triangular teeth, the tips turned back. Usually the flowers are blue of some shade, deep or pale, sometimes forming patches of color in the fields, but the prettiest I have seen grew in the woods near Santa Barbara, the individual flowers larger than usual and pure white, with bright blue anthers. It is common in Yosemite, but rather dull bluish-white and not pretty.

Very much like the last, but the flowers are smaller and form a smaller, more compact head. The corollas are blue, with narrow petals, varying in tint from purplish-blue to pale lilac, the calyx not woolly, and the cluster is about an inch across, the stamens giving it a fuzzy appearance. The leaves are smooth or slightly downy and the seed-vessels form pretty pale green heads. This is common and sometimes grows in such quantities as to be very effective.

The general effect of this plant is inconspicuous, though the flowers are quite pretty close by. The roughish woody stem is only a few inches tall and then branches abruptly into several long sprays, clothed with many very small, narrow, pointed, thickish, dull green leaves and ornamented towards the end with small clusters of flowers, which are lilac or blue, marked with purple lines, less than half an inch across, with five irregular lobes and blue anthers. This grows at the Grand Canyon and in dry open places in the mountains.

Gilia achillaefolia.]

There are several kinds of Collomia, almost all annuals; leaves alternate, usually toothless; flowers in clusters; differing from Gilia and Linanthus in the calyx, which increases in size as it grows older; corolla tube-shaped, funnel-form, or salver-form, with spreading lobes; stamens unequally inserted on the corolla-tube, with unequal filaments; seeds usually mucilaginous.

Very pretty flowers, which attract attention because of their unusual coloring. The leafy stem is from one to two feet tall and slightly downy and the leaves are generally toothless, smooth, and rather dark green. The flowers form a roundish terminal cluster, which is about two inches across, surrounded by broad bracts, which are sticky to the touch. The corolla is funnel-form, about an inch long, various shades of buff or salmon-color, and as the downy buds are yellow, the newly-opened flowers buff, and the older ones pinkish or cream-white, the combinations of color are odd and effective. This is quite common in Yosemite, in warm situations, and much cultivated in Germany. It is sometimes called Wild Bouvardia, but this is a poor name, as it is that of a plant belonging to an entirely different family.

From six inches to over a foot tall, with a rather stout, very leafy stem, more or less branching, and alternate leaves, smooth, toothless, and rather dark green, the upper stems and buds hairy and sticky. The flowers have no pedicels and narrow funnel-form or salver-form corollas, bright pink, about a quarter of an inch across, and are crowded in roundish clusters, at the tips of the leafy branches, the larger clusters toward the top. Though the tiny flowers are bright and pretty this is not an effective plant. It grows in dry, open, sandy places and the foliage has a rather disagreeable smell when crushed.

C. linearis.]

WATERLEAF FAMILY. Hydrophyllaceae.

Herbs or shrubs, mostly natives of western North America; often hairy; with no stipules; the leaves mainly alternate or from the root; the flowers chiefly blue or white, often in coiled clusters; the calyx with five united sepals; the corolla with five united petals; the stamens five, on the base of the corolla and alternate with its lobes, with threadlike filaments and usually with swinging anthers; the ovary superior, the styles two or two-cleft; the fruit a capsule, containing few or many seeds. The leaves were formerly supposed to have water-cavities in them, hence the misleading name. Some of this family resemble some of the Borages, but the stamens are long, the styles are two, at least above, and the ovary has not the four conspicuous lobes of the latter family.

There are many kinds of Phacelia, hairy plants, with no appendages between the sepals; resembling Hydrophyllum, except that the petals overlap in the bud, instead of being rolled up, and the seeds are different. The name is from the Greek, meaning "cluster."

This has pretty and rather unusual looking foliage, for the leaves are a peculiar shade of bluish-green, with purplish margins. They are somewhat sticky, soft and velvety, and although hairy are not disagreeable to touch. The hairy, purplish stems grow from a few inches to a foot tall and the pretty flowers are lilac or purple, with yellow anthers, and measure three-quarters of an inch across. This grows on sunny, sandy mountain slopes.

A low plant, partly creeping, with weak, brittle, sticky stems and soft, slightly thickish, very dull yellowish-green leaves, sticky and often dingy with dust. The flowers are usually violet, but sometimes pure white, about three-eighths of an inch across, with yellow stamens, and are rather pretty. I found this little plant growing under a huge red rock in the Grand Canyon, on apparently perfectly dry, bare soil. It has an aromatic and slightly unpleasant smell and is rare.

Phacelia glechomaefolia.]

A mountain plant, which in favorable situations is exceedingly handsome and conspicuous, about a foot tall, but sometimes more, with downy, leafy stems, and handsome, silky-downy foliage, cut into many narrow divisions. The bell-shaped flowers are three-eighths of an inch across, rich purple, with very long, purple filaments and yellow anthers, and are crowded in magnificent clusters, sometimes eight inches long and very feathery. The corolla dries up and remains on the fruit. This has a disagreeable smell and grows at very high altitudes, where it is unusual to find such large showy flowers. In dry unfavorable situations it is often small and pale in color.

This has very handsome flowers, but the plant is too straggling. The branching, reddish stems are very hairy and rather sticky, from one to nearly two feet tall, with dull green, hairy leaves, which are harsh but not disagreeable to touch, and the flowers are over three-quarters of an inch across, with a very hairy calyx and a bright purple corolla, with a cream-colored spot, the shape of a horseshoe, at the base of each petal. The filaments are purple and hairy, with cream-colored anthers and the style is white, tipped with purple. This sometimes grows in such quantities as to give a very brilliant color effect and is found from Los Angeles to San Diego.

This is from eight inches to two feet high, with hairy, soft, dull green leaves and hairy stems, which are usually branching and spreading. The flowers are less than half an inch across, with a very hairy, sticky calyx, a violet corolla, varying in tint from dull white to bright blue, fading to purple, and purple filaments with whitish anthers. This grows in dry places and is common, often forming large clumps covered with flowers which are quite effective in color, though the plants are too straggling and hairy to be very attractive close by. P. ramosíssima is similar but coarser, the flowers are larger, and the plant is exceedingly hairy, the calyxes being covered with conspicuous, long, white hairs, and the whole plant unpleasant to touch.

Phacelia Parryi.]

A charming little desert plant, four or five inches high, with one or more, purplish, branching stems, springing from a pretty cluster of thickish, dull green root-leaves. The flowers are half an inch across, with sticky, hairy calyxes and buds and bright purple corollas, with bright yellow throats, from which the stamens do not protrude. These little flowers look very gay and pretty against the desert sand.

This is a delicate and pretty plant, in spite of its hairy foliage, from six inches to a foot high, with a hairy stem, purplish and somewhat branching, and alternate leaves, which are sometimes deeply cleft, usually have no leaf-stalks and are hairy and light yellowish-green in color. The flowers are pretty, grouped in rather long clusters, and are each about half an inch across, with a hairy calyx and a corolla delicately tinted with various shades of clear lilac and blue, shading to white in the center, with long narrow appendages in the throat between the stamens, which are long and conspicuous, giving a feathery appearance to the cluster. The anthers are dark purple and mature before the stigma, and the buds are pink and white. This grows on dry hillsides, often under sage-brush.

Phacelia Fremontii.]

A very handsome kind, though rather coarse, and hairy and sticky all over, but with lovely, delicate flowers. The stems are from one to three feet tall and the dark green leaves are velvety on the upper side and hairy on the under. The flowers often measure two inches across, with a lilac or mauve corolla, shading to white in the center, flecked and streaked with brown, blue, or purple, and the stamens have purple filaments and pale yellow anthers. This plant is unpleasantly sticky, with a viscid fluid which stains everything with which it comes in contact, is poisonous to some people, and is found from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This is a white variety, with pretty, delicate white flowers. Phacelia viscida is very much like P. grandiflora, and has about the same range, but is not so large a plant, usually about a foot tall, with smaller flowers, about an inch across. The corollas are blue, with purple or white centers.

Charming flowers, though the foliage is rather too hairy. The stout, reddish stems are hairy, brittle, and loosely branching, about a foot tall, and the leaves dull green and hairy. The handsome flowers are in graceful nodding clusters, with a bell-shaped corolla, about an inch long, a rich shade of bluish-purple, the long conspicuous stamens and pistils giving an airy look to the blossoms. The filaments are purple and the anthers almost white and, as in other Phacelias, when the corolla drops off the long forked style remains sticking out of the calyx like a thread. This grows in light shade in rich moist soil in the hills.

Phacelia viscida var. albiflora.]

This just misses being a very pretty plant, for the leaves are attractive, but the flowers are too small and too dull in color for the general effect to be good. The stems are about ten inches tall, purplish and downy, and the leaves are dull green and rather downy, with conspicuous veins. The buds are hairy and the flowers are lilac and crowded in coiled clusters, to which the long stamens give a very feathery appearance. This is found in the mountains, as far east as Montana and Colorado, and reaches an altitude of over twelve thousand feet.