Part 17

Years ago no traveler from the East felt that he could return home without a manzanita cane, made from as straight a branch as could be secured.

The berries of this shrub are dry and bony and quite unsatisfactory. They are, however, pleasantly acid, and have been put to several uses. It is said that both brandy and vinegar are made from them, and housewives make quite a good jelly from some species. Bears are fond of the berries, and the Indians eat them, both raw and pounded into a flour, from which mush is made. The leaves made into a tincture or infusion are now an officinal drug, valued in catarrh of the throat or stomach.

From Monterey to San Diego is found A. glauca, Lindl., the great-berried manzanita. It closely resembles the above, but its berries are three fourths of an inch in diameter.

Of the same range as the last is A. bicolor, Gray, whose leaves are of a rich, shining green above and white and woolly beneath. Its berries are the size of a pea, yellowish at first, and turning red later.

CALIFORNIAN SAXIFRAGE.

Saxifraga Californica, Greene. Saxifrage Family.

Leaves.--Few; all radical; oval; one to two inches long, on broad petioles six to twelve lines long. Scape.--Six to eighteen inches high. Flowers.--White or rose; four or five lines across. Calyx.--Deeply five-cleft, with reflexed lobes. Petals.--Borne on the calyx. Stamens.--Ten. Ovaries.--Two; partly united. Styles short. Stigmas capitate. Syn.--S. Virginiensis, Michx. Hab.--Throughout the State.

In the rich soil of cool northward slopes, or on many a mossy bank amid the tender young fronds of the maidenhair, may be found the delicate clusters of our little Californian saxifrage. The plants are small, with but a few, perhaps only one or two, oval, rather hairy leaves, lying upon the ground, and a slender red scape upholding the dainty cluster of small white flowers. The tips of the calyx-lobes are usually red, and the wee stamens are pink.

We have several species of saxifrage, most of which are plants of exceeding delicacy and grace, and with small flowers.

MINER'S LETTUCE. INDIAN LETTUCE.

Montia perfoliata, Howell. Purslane Family.

Smooth, succulent herbs. Radical Leaves.--Long-petioled; broadly rhomboidal. Stems.--Simple; six to twelve inches high, having, near the summit, a pair of leaves united around the stem. Flowers.--White. Sepals.--Two. Petals.--Five, minute. Stamens.--Five. Ovary.--One-celled Style slender. Stigma three-cleft. Syn.--Claytonia perfoliata, Don. Hab.--Throughout California.

Though our Indian lettuce is closely allied to the Eastern "Spring Beauty," one would never suspect it from its outward appearance and habit. The little flower-racemes look as though they might have pushed their way right through the rather large saucer-like leaf just below them. The succulent leaves and stems are greedily eaten by the Indians, from which it is called "Indian lettuce."

Mr. Powers, of Sheridan, writes that the Placer County Indians have a novel way of preparing their salad. Gathering the stems and leaves, they lay them about the entrances of the nests of certain large red ants. These, swarming out, run all over it. After a time the Indians shake them off, satisfied that the lettuce has a pleasant sour taste equaling that imparted by vinegar. These little plants are said to be excellent when boiled and well seasoned, and they have long been grown in England, where they are highly esteemed for salads.

WOOD ANEMONE. WIND-FLOWER.

Anemone quinquefolia, L. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.

Rootstock.--Horizontal. Stem.--Six to fourteen inches high. Leaves.--Radical leaf remote from the stem; trifid; the segments serrate. Involucral leaf not far below the flower; three foliolate. Sepals.--Petaloid; five or six; usually bluish outside. Petals.--Wanting. Stamens and Pistils.--Numerous. Akenes.--Two lines long; twelve to twenty. Syn.--Anemone nemorosa, L. Hab.--The Coast Ranges, in moist shade.

The delicate blossoms of the wood anemone might at first be confounded with those of the toothwort by the careless observer, but a moment's reflection will quickly distinguish them. The anemone is always a solitary flower with many stamens, and its petals are of a more delicate texture. It grows upon wooded banks or cool, shaded flats among the redwoods.

There are many quaint traditions as to the origin of its name, and poets have from early times found something ideal of which to sing in these simple spring flowers.

The generic name has the accent upon the third syllable, but, when Anglicized into the common name, the accent falls back upon the second.

OSO-BERRY.

Nuttallia cerasiformis, Torr. and Gray. Rose Family

Deciduous shrubs; two to fifteen feet high. Leaves.--Broadly oblanceolate; two to four inches long; narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers.--White; in short terminal racemes; dioecious; three to eleven lines across. Calyx.--Top-shaped, with five-lobed border. Petals.--Five; inserted with ten of the stamens on the calyx; broadly spatulate. Stamens.--Fifteen. Ovaries.--Five. Styles short. Fruit.--Blue-black, oblong drupes; six to eight lines long. Hab.--Chiefly the Coast Ranges from San Luis Obispo to Fraser River.

About the same time that the beautiful leaves of the buckeye are emerging from their wrappings, we notice in the woods a shrub which has just put forth its clusters of bright-green leaves from buds all along its slender twigs. Amid their delicate green hang short clusters of greenish-white flowers. These blossoms have a delicious bitter fragrance, redolent of all the tender memories of the springtime.

This shrub is usually mistaken for a wild plum; and the illusion is still further assisted when the little drupes, like miniature plums, begin to ripen and hang in yellow and purple clusters amid the matured leaves.

WILD DATE. SPANISH BAYONET.

Yucca Mohavensis, Sargent. Lily Family.

Trunk.--Usually simple; rarely exceeding fifteen feet high; six or eight inches in diameter; naked, or covered with refracted dead leaves, or clothed to the ground with the living leaves. Leaves.--Linear-lanceolate; one to three feet long; one or two inches wide; rigid; margins at length bearing coarse recurved threads. Flowers.--In short-stemmed or sessile, distaff-shaped panicles, a foot or two long; pedicels eventually drooping, twelve to eighteen lines long. Perianth.--Broadly campanulate. Segments.--Six; thirty lines long; six to twelve wide. Stamens.--Six; six to nine lines long; filaments white, club-shaped. Ovary.--Oblong; white; an inch or two long, including the slender style. Stigmas three. Fruit.--Cylindrical; three or four inches long; pendulous, pulpy. Syn.--Yucca baccata, Torr. Hab.--Southern California, from Monterey to San Diego; coast and inland.