Part 12

They are closely related to the Castilleias, and resemble them closely in habit. The difference between the two genera lies in the relative sizes of the upper and lower lips of the corolla. In Castilleia the upper lip is the larger and more prominent; while in Orthocarpus the lower is much more conspicuous, often consisting of three inflated sacs.

The species are quite difficult of determination.

"Owl's clover" is a common English name for the plants of this genus.

PENTSTEMON, Mitchell. Figwort Family.

Perennial herbs, or rarely shrubby. Leaves.--Opposite, rarely whorled; the upper sessile or clasping; the floral gradually or abruptly reduced to bracts. Flowers.--Usually red, blue, purple, or white, rarely yellow; in raceme-like panicles. Calyx.--Five-parted. Corolla.--With a conspicuous and mostly elongated or ventricose tube; the throat swelling out on the lower if on either side; the limb more or less bilabiate, with the upper lip two-lobed and the lower three-cleft, recurved, or spreading. Stamens.--Four perfect; a fifth with a bearded filament only. Anther cells mostly united or running together at the summit. Ovary.--Two-celled. Style long. Stigma entire.

The name Pentstemon is from two Greek words, signifying five and stamen. It was bestowed upon this genus because the fifth stamen is present, though sterile.

The genus is a large one, comprising seventy species, most of which are North American, though a few are Mexican. It is most abundantly represented in the Pacific States and the States west of the Mississippi. California has over twenty species, many of them very beautiful, a number of them being in cultivation.

"Beard-tongue" is the common English name for the plants of this genus.

From so many charming species it has been very difficult to select; and if the reader finds some beautiful flower of this genus which is unnamed in these pages, he is advised to consult the technical botanies.

CALOCHORTUS, Pursh. Lily Family.

Stem.--Branching; from a membranous-coated, sometimes fibrous-coated corm. Leaves.--Few; linear-lanceolate; the radical one or two much larger than those of the flexuous or erect stem. Flowers.--Few to many; showy; terminal or axillary, or umbellately fascicled. Perianth.--Deciduous; of six more or less concave segments; the three outer lanceolate, greenish, more or less sepal-like; the inner (petals) mostly broadly cuneate-obovate, usually with a conspicuous glandular pit toward the base, which is apt to be hidden by long hairs. Stamens.--Six. Anthers erect; basifixed. Ovary.--Three-celled; three-angled. Stigmas three; sessile; recurved. Capsule.--Three-angled or winged.

The Calochorti are the most widely diffused of all the liliaceous plants of the Pacific Coast, and comprise some of the most beautiful flowers in the world. "On the north they reach British America; one species is to be found as far east as Nebraska; and several are natives of Northern Mexico; and within these limits no considerable section of country is destitute of some species." They are so closely allied to the true tulips that the common designation of them as "tulips" is not at all amiss.

The name Calochortus signifies beautiful grass. The members of the genus fall naturally into three general groups:--

First--The GLOBE TULIPS, which have flexile stems, sub-globose, nodding flowers, and nodding capsules. Of these there are three--C. albus, C. pulchellus, and C. amoenus.

Second--The STAR TULIPS, having low, flexile stems, erect, starlike flowers, with spreading petals, and nodding capsules. They comprise C. Benthami, C. Maweanus, C. coeruleus, C. apiculatus, C. elegans, C. Tolmei, C. umbellatus, etc.

Third--The MARIPOSA TULIPS, which are usually tall, fine plants, with stiff, erect stems, having erect, cup-shaped or open-campanulate flowers, usually large and handsome, followed by erect capsules.

They have a few narrow, grasslike, radical leaves, which have usually dried away by the time of flowering, which is in early summer, after the ground has become dry and hard. These inhabit our dry, open hillsides and grassy slopes, loving a stony, clayey, sandy, or volcanic soil. They comprise over thirty different known forms, and others are constantly being discovered.

They have a tendency to hybridize, and the various forms sport and vary, and run into one another in such a wonderful manner that the exact determination of all the species is an impossible task to all but a few experts--and even they are not certain about them all yet. We have given only a few of the commonest or best-characterized species.

Mariposa is the Spanish word meaning butterfly, and was applied on account of the marvelous resemblance of the markings of the petals of some of the forms to the wings of that insect.

FOOTNOTE:

INTRODUCTORY

Situated on the western verge of the continent, so far removed from the other parts of our country, not only by great distance, but by those mighty natural barriers that traverse the continent from north to south, California is eminently individual in her natural features. Stretching through nine and one half degrees of latitude, with a sea-coast of seven hundred miles, and several ranges of fine and lofty mountains, there is probably not another State in the Union that has so wonderful a diversity of climate and vegetation. Her shores, bathed by the warm Japan Current, or Ku-ro Si-wa, which is deflected southward from Alaska, are many degrees warmer than their latitude alone would warrant.

Her general topography is simple and readily understood. The Sierra Nevada, or "snowy range," upon the eastern boundary, with its granite summits and its shoulders clothed with successive belts of majestic coniferous forests, with an occasional snow-peak towering above the range, forms the eastern wall of the great Central Valley, which is inclosed upon the west by the Coast Range, less in height than the Sierra, but equally beautiful, less forbidding, more companionable. The great Central Valley, four hundred and fifty miles long, is drained by two rivers, which meet in its center and break through the Coast Range, delivering their waters to the ocean through the Golden Gate. The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers receive many important tributaries from the east, fed by the melting snows of the Sierras, and flow through one of the most fertile regions of the world.

The Sierras may be divided into five different belts, of varying altitudes along the length of the range, beginning with the foothill region, which may be termed the chaparral region. This is succeeded by the yellow-pine belt, above which is the sugar-pine, or upper forest, belt, which is in turn succeeded by the sub-alpine, while the alpine dominates all.

The Coast Range is channeled on both sides by many beautiful wooded cañons, affording homes for some of our loveliest flowers. Mr. Purdy writes of it: This "is not a continuous range, but a broken mass of parallel ridges from forty to seventy miles wide, with many other chains transverse to the general trend of the range, and inclosing numerous valleys, large and small, of widely different altitudes. In the Coast Range there is no warm belt, but isolated warm spots. Climate here can only be ascertained by experience. The geological formation of the ranges and the character of soils constantly vary, and often widely at short intervals. Hence the flora of this region is particularly interesting. It is hardly probable there is a more captivating field for the botanist in the world."

In the north and the south the two great ranges meet in some of the noblest snow-peaks on the continent. Below their southern junction, to the eastward, lies an arid desert region, and above their northern junction extends a dry and elevated plateau to the northeast. Thus there arises a great diversity of natural condition. As all living organisms are greatly influenced by their environment, the flora naturally distributes itself along the lines of climatic variation. Thus we have alpine species on the snowy heights of the Sierras, and sub-alpine forms luxuriating in the meadows fed from their snows; inland species in the Central Valley, and following some distance up its eastern and western walls; the leathery and hardy forms of the wind-swept coast; the curious prickly races of arid regions; delicate lovers of the cool and shaded brook; dwellers in marshes and on lake borders; denizens of dry, rocky hill-slopes, exposed to the glare of the sun; and inhabiters of shaded woods. It may be said that the most characteristically Western plants of our flora are to be found in the Central Valley, in the lower belts of the Sierras, and in the valleys of the Coast Range, many of which extend beyond our borders, both northward and southward. Many of our alpine species are common to the East, and our maritime flora is of necessity somewhat cosmopolitan, containing many introduced species from various parts of the world.

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The climate of California is divided into two seasons--the wet and the dry,--the former extending from October to May, the latter occupying the remaining months of the year. And this climatic division coincides almost exactly with the area of the State. Of course, these dates are not absolute, as showers may occur beyond their limits.