Part 26

Prunus ilicifolia, Walp. Rose Family.

Evergreen shrubs or small trees; eight to thirty feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; holly-like; an inch or two long. Flowers.--White; three lines across; in racemes eighteen lines to three inches long. Calyx.--Five-cleft. Petals.--Five; spreading. Stamens.--Twelve to twenty-five. Ovary.--Solitary; one-celled. Style terminal. Fruit.--A dark red cherry, becoming black; six lines in diameter. Hab.--Coast Ranges, San Francisco into Lower California.

The holly-leaved cherry is a very ornamental shrub, with its shining, prickly evergreen leaves, and it is coming more and more into favor for cultivation, especially as a hedge-shrub. In its natural state it attains its greatest perfection in the mountains near Santa Barbara and southward. On dry hills it is only a shrub, but in the rich soil of cañon bottoms it becomes a tree. Some of the finest specimens are to be found in the gardens of the old missions, where they have been growing probably a century.

Dr. Behr tells us that the foliage, in withering, develops hydrocyanic acid, the odor of which is quite perceptible. The leaves are then poisonous to sheep and cattle.

The shrubs are especially beautiful in spring, after they have made their new growth of bright green at the ends of the branches, and put forth a profusion of feathery bloom. The blossoms have the pleasant, bitter fragrance of the cultivated cherry, and attract myriads of bees, who make the region vocal with their busy hum. The fruit, which ripens from September to December, is disappointing, owing to its very thin pulp, though its astringent and acid flavor is not unpleasant.

It was used by the aborigines as food, however, and made into an intoxicating drink by fermentation. The meat of the stones ground and made into balls constituted a delicate morsel with them.

YERBA BUENA.

Micromeria Douglasii, Benth. Mint Family.

Aromatic trailing vines. Stems.--Slender; one to four feet long. Leaves.--One inch long; round-ovate. Flowers.--Solitary; axillary; white or purplish. Calyx.--Five-toothed; two lines long. Corolla.--Five lines long; bilabiate. Stamens.--Four; in pairs on the corolla. Ovary.--Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma unevenly two-lipped. Hab.--Vancouver Island to Los Angeles County.

The yerba buena is as dear to the Californian as the Mayflower to the New Englander, and is as intimately associated with the early traditions of this Western land as is that delicate blossom with the stormy past of the Pilgrim Fathers. Its delicious, aromatic perfume seems in some subtle way to link those early days of the Padres with our own, and to call up visions of the long, low, rambling mission buildings of adobe, with their picturesque red-tiled roofs; the flocks and herds tended by gentle shepherds in cowls; and the angelus sounding from those quaint belfries, and vibrating in ever-widening circles over hill and vale.

Before the coming of the Mission Fathers, the Indians used this little herb, placing great faith in its medicinal virtues, so that the Padres afterward bestowed upon it the name of "yerba buena"--"the good herb." It is still used among our Spanish-Californians in the form of a tea, both as a pleasant beverage and as a febrifuge, and also as a remedy for indigestion and other disorders.

They designate this as "Yerba Buena del Campo"--i.e. the wild or field yerba buena,--to distinguish it from the "Yerba Buena del Poso"--"the herb of the well,"--which is the common garden-mint growing in damp places.

Aside from its associations and medicinal virtues, this is a charming little plant. In half-shaded woods its long, graceful stems make a trailing interlacement upon the ground and yield up their minty fragrance as we pass.

MATILIJA POPPY.

Romneya Coulteri, Harv. Poppy Family.

Stems.--Numerous; two to fifteen feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; petioled; the lower pinnatifid; the upper pinnately cut into long narrow segments; glaucous; three to five inches long; smooth. Flowers.--Solitary; six to nine inches across. Sepals.--Three; strongly arched, covered with bristly appressed hairs; caducous. Petals.--Six; white. Stamens.--Very numerous. Filaments filiform; yellow, purple below. Ovary.--Seven- to eleven-celled. Stigmas several. Hab.--Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The Matilija poppy (pronounced ma-til'li-ha) must be conceded the queen of all our flowers. It is not a plant for small gardens, but the fitting adornment of a large park, where it can have space and light and air to rear its imperial stems and shake out its great diaphanous flowers. It is one of the most wonderful of wild flowers, and it is difficult to believe that nature, without the aid of a careful gardener, should have produced such a miracle of loveliness. It is justly far-famed, and by English gardeners, who now grow it successfully, it is regarded as a priceless treasure, and people go from many miles around to see it when it blooms. It is to be regretted that our flowers must go abroad to find their warmest admirers.

This plant was named in honor of Dr. Romney Robinson, a famous astronomer. Its common name was given it because it grows in particular abundance in the Matilija Cañon, some miles above Ventura in the mountains. Many people have the mistaken idea that it grows only in that region. It is not common, by any means; but it is found in scattered localities from Santa Barbara southward into Mexico. It is very abundant near Riverside, and also upon the southern boundary and below in Lower California, where the plants cover large areas. It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion of remote cañons, and nothing more magnificent could be imagined than a steep cañon-side covered with the great bushy plants, thickly sown with the enormous white flowers.

The round buds (which, however, are sometimes pointed) are closely wrapped in three overlapping hairy sepals. These gradually open, and at dawn the buds unfurl their crumpled petals to the day, exhaling a pleasant fragrance. The blossoms remain open for many days.

These plants have long been in use among the Indians of Lower California, who esteem them highly for their medicinal qualities. The seeds require a long period for germination, and they have been known to come at the end of two years. The better method of propagation is from root-cuttings.

The plant has been called "Mission poppy" and "Giant Californian white poppy," but the pretty Indian name cannot be improved upon.

WHITE SAGE. GREASEWOOD.

Audibertia polystachya, Benth. Mint Family.

Shrubby, three to ten feet high; many-stemmed. Leaves.--Opposite; lanceolate; narrowing into a petiole; several inches long. Flowers.--White or pale lavender, in loose panicles a foot or two long. Calyx.--Tubular; bilabiate. Corolla.--About six lines long, with short tube and bilabiate border. Upper lip small; erect. Lower lip three-lobed; the middle lobe large. Stamens.--Two; jointed. Ovary.--Of four seedlike nutlets. Style slender. Stigma two-cleft. Hab.--Santa Barbara to San Diego.

The classic honey of Hymettus could not have been clearer or more wholesome than that distilled by the bees from the white sage of Southern California, which has become justly world-renowned. The plants cover extensive reaches of valley and hill-slopes, and are often called "greasewood."

Certain it is that the white stems have a very greasy, gummy feel and a rank, aggressive odor. In spring the long, coarse, sparsely leafy branches begin to rise from the woody base, often making the slopes silvery; and by May these have fully developed their loose, narrow panicles of pale flowers and yellowish buds.

The structure of these blossoms is very interesting. The long, prominent lower lip curves downward and upward and backward upon itself, like a swan's neck, while the two stamens rising from its surface lift themselves like two long horns, and the style curves downward.

A bee arriving at this flower naturally brushes against the stigma, leaving upon it some of the pollen gained from another flower. Then alighting upon the lower lip, his weight bends it downward, and he grasps the stamens as convenient handles, thus drawing the anthers toward his body, where the pollen is dusted upon his coat as he probes beneath the closed upper lip for the honey in the depths of the tube. The various sages of the south have a very interesting way of hybridizing.