Part 30

Chlorogalum pomeridianum, Kunth. Lily Family.

Bulb.--One to four inches in diameter; densely brown-fibrous. Leaves.--Six to eighteen inches long. Scape.--One to five feet high; bearing a loosely spreading panicle. Perianth.--White; of six spreading, recurved segments nine lines long. Stamens.--Six; shorter than the segments. Ovary.--Three-celled. Style filiform. Stigma three-lobed. Hab.--Widely distributed.

The leaves of the soap-plant have been with us all the spring, increasing in length as the season has advanced. You can easily recognize them, as they resemble a broad, wavy-margined grass, usually lying flat upon the ground, with some of the ragged brown fibres of the bulb showing aboveground, like the fragment of an old manilla mat.

In early summer, from their midst begins to shoot a slender stalk. When the process of its growth is complete, it stands from two to five feet high, with slender, widespreading branches and rather sparsely scattered flowers.

If you would find its flowers open, you must seek it in the afternoon. At a little distance, it appears as though the truant summer wind had lodged a delicate white feather here and there upon the branches. In themselves, these blossoms are not ill-favored, with their slender, recurved petals; but to us the root is the most interesting part of the plant. This the early Spanish-Californians used extensively in lieu of soap, and esteemed greatly as a hair tonic, and it was known by them as "amole." Even now it is much used among their descendants, and we know of one aged señora over ninety who refuses to use anything else for washing. Her grandsons keep her supplied with the bulbs, which they dig by the sackful from the neighboring hill-slopes and mesas. She takes her linen down to the brookside, and there, in primitive fashion, upon her knees she scours and rinses it till it is as white as the driven snow.

The Indians of the Sierra foothills have a curious use for the bulb. After the June freshets have subsided, many fish are usually left in small pools in the streams. The squaws go to these pools with an abundance of soap-root, and kneeling upon the banks, rub up a great suds with it. The fish soon rise to the surface stupefied, and are easily taken.

We are told that in the early days of the gold excitement, when commodities were scarce and brought fabulous prices, the fibrous outer coats of the bulb were used for stuffing mattresses.

The inner portion of the bulb, when reduced to a paste, is said to be an excellent remedy for oak-poisoning, applied as a salve.

This is not the only plant popularly known as soap-plant among us. Several others share the title, among them the goose-foot, the yucca, and the California lilac. There are several other species of Chlorogalum.

MOUNTAIN BIRCH. WHITE TEA-TREE. SOAP-BUSH.

Ceanothus integerrimus, Hook. and Arn. Buckthorn Family.

Shrubs or small trees; five to twelve feet high; with cylindrical, usually warty, branches. Leaves.--Alternate; on slender petioles two to six lines long; ovate to ovate-oblong; one to three inches long; entire or rarely slightly glandular-serrulate; thin. Flowers.--White; sometimes blue; in a thyrse three to seven inches long, one to four thick. Fruit.--Not crested. (See Ceanothus.) Hab.--Mountains from Los Angeles to the Columbia River.

When in flower, this is one of the most attractive of all our Ceanothi. It often covers great mountain-sides with its white bloom as with drifted snow. The trip to the Yosemite is often diversified by this beautiful spectacle, which comes as an exhilarating surprise.

Among the mountaineers this shrub is highly valued as forage for their cattle, which they turn upon it after the lowland pastures have dried up.

The young twigs and leaves have the spicy fragrance of the black birch of the Eastern States. The foliage is deciduous, and of rather a pale though bright green. The bark of the root of this shrub is becoming celebrated as a remedy for various disorders, such as malaria, catarrh, and liver trouble.

COMMON WHITE LUPINE.

Lupinus densiflorus, Benth. Pea Family.

Stems.--Stout; simple below; parted in the middle into numerous widespreading branches; two feet high; succulent; sparsely villous. Flowers.--In long-peduncled racemes; six to ten inches long; with usually five or six dense whorls. Bracts bristle-like, from a broad base. Calyx.--Upper lip scarious; deeply cleft; lower long, toothed. Corolla.--White or rose-color; seven lines or so long; the standard dark dotted. Pod.--Two-seeded. Hab.--Widespread; Sacramento Valley southward.

In the days when we went fishing in the brook with a pin for minnows, a company of these pretty white lupines in a field represented to our childish fancy so many graceful dames in flounced skirts dancing in a sylvan ballroom.

MEADOW-SWEET.

Spiraea discolor, Pursh. Rose Family.

Shrubs two to six feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; short-petioled; an inch or two long; oval or ovate; crenately lobed above; the lobes often toothed; silky pubescent beneath. Flowers.--White; two lines across; in feathery panicles several inches long. Calyx.--Five-parted; petaloid. Petals.--Five; equaling the sepals. Stamens.--About twenty. Pistils.--Five; distinct; one-celled. Hab.--Coast Ranges, mostly from Monterey County northward.

Not until midsummer is upon us does the common meadow-sweet make itself noticeable by its large feathery clusters of minute white flowers, which have a pleasant odor, reminiscent of slippery-elm.

We have two species of Spiraea with pink flowers--S. Douglasii, Hook., the Californian hardhack, having its blossoms in long clusters, (found in Northern California,) and S. betulifolia, Pall., having flat-topped flower-clusters, (found in the Sierras).

Another shrub closely resembling the Spiraeas is Neillia opulifolia, Benth. and Hook., the wild bridal-wreath, or ninebark. Indeed, this has been classed by some authorities among the Spiraeas. It may be easily recognized by its hemispherical clusters of white flowers. These clusters are an inch or two across. Though the shrub is quite showy when in bloom, it is almost equally attractive when its carpels are beginning to redden.

CALIFORNIAN AZALEA.

Rhododendron occidentale, Gray. Heath Family.

Shrubs two to twelve feet high. Leaves.--Clustered at the ends of the branches; obovate to lanceolate; two to four inches long; herbaceous. Flower-clusters.--Large, from a special terminal bud. Calyx.--Deeply five-cleft. Corolla.--With funnel-form tube, and five-cleft border; white; the upper lobe blotched with corn-color; sometimes tinged with pink; glandular-viscid without. Stamens.--Five. Anthers two-celled, opening terminally. Ovary.--Five-celled. Capsule.--Very woody. Hab.--Stream-banks throughout the State.