Part 45

Stems.--Three to eighteen inches high; branching from a woody base. Leaves.--Opposite; often in four ranks; linear to oblong; six lines to an inch or more long; usually folded; translucently dotted. Flowers.--Golden yellow; over an inch across. Sepals.--Five. Petals.--Five; margins black-dotted. Stamens.--Numerous; in three bunches. Ovary.--Usually three-celled. Styles three. Hab.--Central California.

Just as spring is merging into summer, we may look for the bright golden flowers of our common St. John's-wort. The numerous stamens give these blossoms a feathery appearance, and the leaves often group themselves characteristically in four ranks upon the stems.

All the plants of the genus are known as St. John's-wort, because certain of the species were supposed to flower upon the anniversary of this saint. Perhaps there are no other plants around which tradition has thrown such a glamour. Mr. Dyer says, in his interesting book, "The Folk-Lore of Plants," that the St. John's-wort was supposed to be an excellent amulet against lightning, and that it had the magic property of revealing the presence of witches; whence in Germany it was extensively worn on St. John's Eve, when the air was supposed to be peopled with witches and evil spirits, who wandered abroad upon no friendly errands. In Denmark it is resorted to by anxious lovers who wish to divine their future.

GOLDEN DICENTRA.

Dicentra chrysantha, Hook. and Arn. Bleeding-heart Family.

Stems.--Glaucous and smooth; two to five feet high. Leaves.--The larger ones a foot long or more; finely dissected into small linear lobes. Flowers.--Erect; yellow; six to nine lines long; in a loose terminal panicle a foot or two long. Sepals.--Two; small; caducous. Corolla.--Flattened and cordate; of two pairs of petals; the outer larger, saccate at base, and with spreading tips; the inner much narrower, spoon-shaped, their tips cohering and inclosing the anthers and stigma. Stamens.--Six. Ovary.--One-celled. Style slender. Stigma two-lobed. Hab.--Dry hills, Lake County to San Diego.

The arrangement of the essential organs in the genus Dicentra is very curious and interesting. The six stamens are borne in two companies of three each, which stand in front of the outer petals, and have their filaments more or less united at the base. The central stamen in each group has a two-celled anther, while its neighbor on either hand has but a one-celled anther. The stigma-lobes often bend downward prettily, like the flukes of a little anchor.

To this genus belongs the beautiful Oriental bleeding-heart of the garden; and we have two or three interesting native species.

D. chrysantha is usually a somewhat coarse plant, lacking the grace of D. formosa, the Californian bleeding-heart. The pale leaves, which are minutely and delicately dissected, are suggestive of the fronds of certain Japanese ferns. But the flower-stalks are often stiff and sparsely flowered, and the blossoms, which are erect, not pendulous, have an over-powering narcotic odor, much like that of the poppy. These plants may be found upon dry hillsides or in sandy washes in early summer, where the brilliant yellow blossoms are quite conspicuous. One view of these flowers is not unlike the conventionalized tulip.

This species is said to thrive well in cultivation and make a very effective plant when grown in rich garden soil.

CALIFORNIAN DANDELION.

Troximon grandiflorum, Gray. Composite Family.

Herbs with woody tap-root and milky juice. Leaves.--All radical; lanceolate or oblanceolate; mostly laciniately pinnatifid. Scapes.--One to two and one half feet high. Heads.--Solitary; two inches or so across; of strap-shaped yellow rays only. Involucre.--Of several series of imbricated scales, the outer foliaceous and loose. Receptacle.--Mostly naked; pitted. Akenes.--Two lines long; tapering into a filiform beak six or eight lines long, surmounted by a tuft of silk. Hab.--Washington to Southern California near the Coast.

The common dandelion of the East has found its way into our lawns, but it never adapts itself as a wild plant to the vicissitudes of our dry summer climate. Nature has given us a dandelion of our own, of a different genus, which is quite as beautiful, though its flowers are not so vivid a gold. They are larger than those of the Eastern plant, and are borne upon taller stems. In early summer the large, ethereal globes of the ripened seed are conspicuous objects, hovering over our straw-tinted fields.

Mr. Burroughs writes of the dandelion:--"After its first blooming, comes its second and finer and more spiritual inflorescence, when its stalk, dropping its more earthly and carnal flower, shoots upward and is presently crowned by a globe of the most delicate and aerial texture. It is like the poet's dream, which succeeds his rank and golden youth. This globe is a fleet of a hundred fairy balloons, each one of which bears a seed which it is destined to drop far from the parent source."

If gathered just before they open and allowed to expand in the house, these down-globes will remain perfect for a long time and make an exquisite adornment for some delicate vase.

We have several other species of Troximon, but this is our finest.

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Hosackia bicolor, Dougl. Pea Family.

Smooth throughout; erect; two feet high. Leaves.--With rather large, scarious, triangular stipules; pinnate. Leaflets.--Five to nine; obovate or oblong; six to twelve lines long. Peduncles.--Three- to seven-flowered; naked or with a small scarious, one- to three-leaved bract. Flowers.--Seven lines long. Calyx-teeth.--Triangular; half as long as the tube. Standard.--Yellow; wings and keel white. Stamens.--Nine united; one free. Pod.--Linear; nearly two inches long; acute. Hab.--Middle California to the State of Washington.

The yellow and white blossoms of this pretty Hosackia are quite showy, and are usually found upon low ground near the seaboard.

Another similar species, also having a yellow standard and white wings and keel, is H. Torreyi, Gray. This is more or less silky pubescent; its wings are not spreading, its leaflets are narrower, and the bract of the umbel is sessile. This is found along shaded stream-banks both in the higher Coast Ranges and in the Sierras, and blooms in summer.

H. gracilis, Benth., with the standard yellow and the widespreading wings and shorter keel of rose-color, occurs in moist meadows along the coast from Monterey to the Columbia. It blooms by the middle of April.

H. crassifolia, Benth., a very large species, two or three feet high, with greenish-yellow or purplish flowers, is abundant in the Yosemite Valley about the borders of meadows. It is also common in the foothill region.

SKUNK-CABBAGE.

Lysichiton Camtschatcensis, Schott. Arum Family.

Rootstock.--Thick; horizontal. Leaves.--All radical; oblong-lanceolate; acute; one to three feet or more long; three to ten inches broad; narrowed to a short petiole or sessile. Flowers.--Small, crowded on a spadix, at the summit of a stout peduncle becoming six to twelve inches long. Spadix.--With an erect, spoon-shaped spathe, one and one-half to two feet long; bright yellow. Perianth.--Four-lobed. Stamens.--Four. Filaments short, flat. Ovary.--Conical; two-celled. Stigma depressed. Fruit.--Fleshy, coalescent and sunk in the rachis. Hab.--Peat bogs; from Mendocino County northward to Alaska; also, perhaps, in the Rocky Mountains.

In our northwestern counties, before the frost is entirely out of the ground, the leaves of the skunk-cabbage may be seen pushing their way up through the standing water of marshy localities. They soon attain a great size, and resemble the leaves of the banana-tree. They are of a rich velvet-green, slightly mottled, and are said to rival some of the tropical productions of our greenhouses.