Part 24

Six inches to a foot high; erect; sparsely leaved. Leaves.--Opposite; mostly entire; filiform. Flowers.--Nearly sessile in the forks, or terminal. Calyx.--With cylindric tube five lines long; wholly white, scarious, except the five filiform green ribs, continued into needle-like lobes. Corolla.--White; an inch or two across. Anthers linear. Hab.--Throughout the western part of the State.

This is one of the most showy of our gilias. Miss Eastwood writes of it: "At about four o'clock in the afternoon Gilia dichotoma begins to whiten the hillside. Before expansion the flowers are hardly noticeable; the dull pink of the edges, which are not covered in the convolute corolla, hides their identity and makes the change which takes place when they unveil their radiant faces to the setting sun the more startling. They intend to watch all night and by sunset all are awake. In the morning they roll up their petals again when daylight comes on, and when the sun is well up all are asleep, tired out with the vigil of the night. The odor is most sickening.... The same flower opens several times, and grows larger as it grows older."

HEART'S-EASE.

Viola ocellata, Torr. and Gray. Violet Family.

Stems.--Nearly erect; six to twelve inches high. Leaves.--Cordate; acutish; conspicuously crenate. Petals.--Five to seven lines long; the upper white within, deep brown-purple without; the others white or yellowish, veined with purple; the lateral with a purple spot near the base and slightly bearded on the claw. (Flower structure as in V. pedunculata.) Hab.--Wooded districts from Monterey to Mendocino County.

This dainty little heart's-ease has nothing of the gay, joyous, self-assertive look of our yellow pansy, but rather the shy, timid mien belonging to all the creatures of the woodland. It ventures its pretty blossoms in late spring and early summer.

ICE-PLANT.

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L. Fig-Marigold Family.

Procumbent, succulent plants, covered with minute, elongated, glistening papillae. Leaves.--Flat; ovate or spatulate; undulate-margined; clasping. Flowers.--White or rose-colored; axillary; nearly sessile; rather small. Calyx.--With campanulate tube and usually five unequal lobes. Petals.--Linear; numerous. Stamens.--Numerous. Ovary.--Two- to many-celled. Stigmas five. Hab.--The Coast and adjacent islands from Santa Barbara southward; also in the Mojave Desert.

The ice-plant spreads its broad, green leaves over the ground, often making large rugs, which, when reddened by the approach of drouth and glistening with small crystals, produce a charming effect. The flat leaves of this plant are quite unexpectedly different from those of our other species of Mesembryanthemum, which are usually cylindrical or triangular. The leaf-stems and the calyx-tube, in particular, are beautifully jeweled with the clear, glasslike incrustation. The flesh-pink or almost white flowers resemble small sea-anemones, with their single row of tentacle-like petals and hollow tube powdered with the little white anthers.

The plant grows so abundantly in the fields of the southern seasides as to be a dreadful pest to the farmer, and it is very disagreeable to walk through, as it yields up the water of its crystals very readily, and this is said to be of an alkaline quality, which is ruinous to shoe-leather.

This ice-plant grows plentifully in the chalky regions of France, and has there been recommended for use as a food, to be prepared like spinach. It also grows in the Canary Islands.

SQUAW-GRASS. SOUR-GRASS. TURKEY-BEARD.

Xerophyllum tenax, Nutt. Lily Family.

Radical leaves.--Very numerous; two or three feet long; about two lines broad; gracefully flexile; serrulate. Scape.--Two to five feet high; with scattered leaves; bearing at top a dense raceme a foot or two long. Perianth segments.--Six; spreading rotately; four or five lines long; white. Stamens.--Six. Ovary.--Three-celled. Styles three; filiform. Hab.--Coast Ranges to British Columbia; also in the Northern Sierras.

Often upon high ridges we notice the large clumps of certain plants with long, slender, grasslike leaves, which ray out in every direction like a fountain, and resemble a small pampas-grass before it flowers. We naturally wonder what the plants are, but it may be many years before our curiosity is satisfied. Suddenly some spring we find them sending up tall blossom-shafts, crowned with great airy plumes of pure-white flowers, fully worthy of our long and patient waiting. After putting forth this supreme effort of a lifetime, and maturing its seed, the plant dies.

In the north, where it is sometimes very abundant, and occupies extensive meadows, it is known as "sour-grass." The name "squaw-grass" is also applied there, because the leaves, which are long, wiry, and tough, are used by the Indians in the weaving of some of their finest baskets. Baskets made from them are particularly pliable and durable.

WHITE OWL'S CLOVER.

Orthocarpus versicolor, Greene. Figwort Family.

Slender; seldom branching or more than six inches high. Herbage slightly reddish. Leaves.--Cleft into filiform divisions at the apex. Flowers.--Pure white, fading pinkish; very fragrant. Lower lip of the corolla with three very large sacs. Folds of the throat densely bearded. (See Orthocarpus.) Hab.--San Francisco and Marin County.

During the spring the meadows about San Francisco are luxuriantly covered with the pretty blossoms of the owl's clover, which make snowy patches in some places. Unlike the other species of Orthocarpus, this has delightfully fragrant blossoms.

I do not know why this plant should be accredited to the owl and called clover, unless the quizzical-looking little blossoms are suggestive of the wise bird. But with all his wisdom, I doubt if he would recognize his clover.

HAIRBELL. LANTERN OF THE FAIRIES.

WHITE GLOBE-TULIP.

Calochortus albus, Dougl. Lily Family.

Stem.--One or two feet high; branching. Flowers.--White. Sepals.--Lanceolate. Petals.--Twelve to fifteen lines long; pearly white, sometimes lavender-tinged outside; covered within with long, silky white hairs. Gland.--Shallow crescent-shaped, with four transverse scales fringed with short glandular hairs. (See Calochortus.) Hab.--Coast Ranges and Sierras, San Diego to Tehama County.

Just before the oncoming of summer, our wooded hill-slopes and cañon-sides entertain one of the most charming of flowers; for the graceful stalks of the hairbell begin to hang out their delicate, white satin globes. Never was flower more exquisite in texture and fringing--never one more graceful in habit. If fairies have need of lanterns at all, these blossoms would certainly make very dainty globes to hold their miniature lights.

Wherever they grow, these flowers win instant and enthusiastic admiration; and they have received a variety of common names in different localities, being known as "snowy lily-bell," "satin-bell," "hairbell," "lantern of the fairies," and "white globe-tulip."