Part 16

Bulb.--Dark-coated. Leaves.--Linear; a foot or two long; deeply channeled. Scape.--Three inches to even four feet high. Flowers.--White. Perianth Segments.--Six; strongly nerved; bearing at base yellow glands; inner segments clawed. Stamens.--Six; shorter than the perianth. Ovary.--Three-celled. Styles three; short. Capsule.--Three-beaked. Hab.--Coast Ranges, San Diego to Humboldt County.

The generic name, Zygadenus, is from the Greek, and signifies yoked glands, referring to the glands upon the base of the perianth segments.

We have several species, the most beautiful and showy of which is Z. Fremonti. This is widely distributed, and grows in very different situations. In our central Coast Range its tall stems, with their lovely clusters of white stars, make their appearance upon rocky hill-slopes with warm exposure, in the shelter of the trees, soon after the toothwort has sprinkled the fields with its white bloom. In the south it rears its tall stems upon open mesas, unprotected by the shelter of friendly tree or shrub, and in some localities it makes itself at home in bogs. It is possible that the future may reveal the presence of more than one species.

It has sometimes been called "soap-plant"; but this name more appropriately belongs to Chlorogalum. It somewhat resembles the Star of Bethlehem of Eastern gardens. The fact that it grows in boggy places has given rise to the name of "water-lily" in certain localities; but this ought to be discountenanced, as it bears not the slightest resemblance to the magnificent water-lily of Eastern ponds.

Another species--Z. venenosus, Wats.--is found from Monterey and Mariposa Counties to British Columbia. This may be distinguished from the above by its narrow leaves--only two or three lines wide,--usually folded together, and by its smaller flowers, with perianth segments only two or three lines long; and also by the fact that the stamens equal the segments in length. The bulb is poisonous, and our Northern Indians call it "death camass," while the farmers in the Sierras call it "Lobelia," not because of any resemblance to that plant, but because its poisonous effects are similar to those of the latter. It is fatal to horses, but hogs eat it with impunity, from which it is also known as "hogs' potato." It is found in moist meadows or along stream-banks, in June and July.

POISON-OAK.

Rhus diversiloba, Torr. and Gray. Poison-Oak or Cashew Family.

Shrubs.--Three to fifteen feet high. Leaflets.--One to four inches long. Flowers.--Greenish white; small. Sepals and Petals.--Usually five. Stamens.--As many or twice as many as the petals. Ovary.--One-celled. Styles three: distinct or united. Fruit.--A small, dry, striate, whitish drupe. Hab.--Throughout California.

The presence of the poison-oak in our woods and fields makes these outdoor haunts forbidden pleasures to persons who are susceptible to it. It is closely allied to the poison-ivy of the Eastern States, and very similar in its effects. It is a charming shrub in appearance, with beautiful glossy, shapely leaves; and in early summer, when it turns to many shades of scarlet and purple-bronze, it is especially alluring to the unsuspecting. It is quite diverse in its habit, sometimes appearing as an erect shrub, and again climbing trees or rock surfaces, by means of small aerial rootlets, to a considerable height. Horses eat the leaves without injury; and the honey which the bees distill from its small greenish-white flowers is said to be excellent.

Many low plants seek the shelter of these shrubs, and some of our loveliest flowers, such as Clarkias, Godetias, Collinsias, Brodiaeas, and larkspurs, seem to realize that immunity from human marauders is to be had within its safe retreat.

The remedies for oak-poisoning are numerous; and it may not be out of place to mention a few of them here. Different remedies are required by different individuals. Any of the following plants may be made into a tea and used as a wash: Grindelia, manzanita, wild peony, California holly, and Rhamnus Purshiania, or Californica. Hot solutions of soda, Epsom salts, or saltpeter are helpful to many, and the bulb of the soap-root,--Chlorogalum pomeridianum--pounded to a paste and used as a salve, allowing it to dry upon the surface and remain for some hours at least, is considered excellent. In fact, any pure toilet soap may be used in the same manner.

WAKE-ROBIN.

Trillium ovatum, Pursh. Lily Family.

Rootstock.--Thickened. Stem.--Erect; stout; a foot or more high; bearing at summit a whorl of three sessile leaves. Leaves.--Rhomboidal; acuminate; netted-veined; five-nerved; two to six inches long. Flower.--Solitary; pure white, turning to deep rose; peduncle one to three inches long. Sepals.--Three; herbaceous. Petals.--One or two inches long. Stamens.--Six. Ovary.--Three-celled. Stigmas three; sessile. Capsule.--Broadly ovate: six-winged. Hab.--The Coast Ranges, from Santa Cruz to British Columbia.

The wake-robin is in the vanguard of our spring flowers, and a walk into some high, cold cañon while the days are still dark and short will be amply rewarded by the finding of its white and peculiarly pure-looking blossoms standing upon the bank overlooking the streamlet. The blossoms remain unchanged for a time, and then, as they fade, turn to a deep purplish rose-color.

Our wake-robin so closely resembles T. grandiflorum, Salisb., of the Eastern States, that it seems a pity it should have been made into a different species.

BEACH-STRAWBERRY.

Fragaria Chilensis, Ehrhart. Rose Family.

Hab.--The coast, from Alaska to San Francisco and southward.

This beautiful strawberry is found growing near the seashore, where its large, delicious berries are often buried beneath the shifting sand, becoming bleached in color. It sometimes covers acres with its thick, shining, dark-green leaves, among which are sprinkled its large pure-white flowers, an inch or more across.

The wood-strawberry--F. Californica--is very common in the Coast Ranges; but for the most part it is dry and flavorless.

=MANZANITA. BEARBERRY.=

Arctostaphylos manzanita, Parry. Heath Family.

Shrubs three to twenty-five feet high, with purple-brown bark. Leaves.--Pale. Flowers.--White or pinkish; in crowded clusters. Corolla.--Four or five lines long; campanulate. Stamens.--Ten; filaments dilated and bearded at base; anthers two-celled, opening terminally, each cell furnished with a long downward-pointing horn. Ovary.--Globose; five to ten-celled. Style simple. Fruit.--Six lines in diameter, containing several bony nutlets. Syn.--Arctostaphylos pungens, HBK. Hab.--Throughout the State.

Of all our shrubs, the manzanita is the most beautiful and the best known. Sometimes as early as Christmas it may be found in full bloom, when its dense crown of pale foliage, surmounting the rich purple-brown stems, is thickly sown with the little clusters of fragrant waxen bells. After the blossoms have passed away, the shrubs put forth numerous brilliant scarlet or crimson shoots, which at a little distance look like a strange and entirely new kind of blossoming. The manzanita is closely allied to the madroño, and resembles it in many ways, particularly in the annual peeling of its rich red bark and in the form of its flowers.

The Greek generic name, translated into English, becomes "bearberry." The pretty Spanish name--from manzana, apple, and the diminutive, ita,--was bestowed by the early Spanish-Californians, who recognized the resemblance of the fruit to tiny apples.

We have a dozen or more species of Arctostaphylos, but A. manzanita is the commonest of them all. It varies greatly in size and habit. In localities most favorable it becomes a large, erect shrub, with many clustered trunks, while in the Sierras it finds but a precarious footing among the granite rocks, often covering their surfaces with its small tortuous, stiff branches. The leaves, by a twisting of their stalks, assume a vertical position on the branches, a habit which enables many plants of dry regions to avoid unnecessary evaporation.

The largest manzanita known is upon the estate of Mr. Tiburcio Parrott, in St. Helena, Napa County, California. It is thirty-five feet high, with a spread of branches equal to its height, while its trunk measures eleven and a half feet in circumference at the ground, soon dividing into large branches. It is a veritable patriarch, and has doubtless seen many centuries. According to an interesting account in "Garden and Forest," it once had a narrow escape from the ax of a woodman. A gentleman who was a lover of trees, happening to pass, paid the woodman two dollars to spare its life.