Part 56

Many species of Mesembryanthemum are cultivated in our gardens, mostly as border-plants. The genus is a large one, most of the species being native of Southern Africa, and it is supposed that the three species now common upon our Coast were introduced in the remote past without the agency of man.

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Gilia androsacea, Steud. Phlox or Polemonium Family.

Stems.--Three to twelve inches high; erect; spreading. Leaves.--Opposite; sessile; palmately five- to seven-parted; seemingly whorled. Flowers.--In terminal clusters. Corolla.--Salver-shaped; rose-pink, lilac, or white, with a yellow or dark throat; its tube filiform, about an inch long; limb eight to ten lines across. Filaments and style slender; exserted. (See Gilia.) Hab.--Throughout the western part of the State; into the Sierra foothills.

The delicate flowers of this little plant may be found nestling amid the grasses of dry hill-slopes in late spring, often making charming bits of color. It is usually rather a low plant, but in specially favorable situations it rises to a foot in height. Its fragile flowers vary from pure white to lilac and a lovely rose-pink, and look like small phloxes.

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Mimulus Douglasii, Gray. Figwort Family.

Flowering at half an inch high; later becoming a span high. Leaves.--Ovate or oblong; three- to five-nerved at base; narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers.--Rich maroon, with deeper color in the throat and some yellow below. Calyx.--Five-toothed. Corolla.--An inch to eighteen lines long; with dilated throat. Lower lip much shorter than the ample, erect, upper one; sometimes almost wanting. (See Mimulus.) Hab.--Throughout California.

This little Mimulus is quite common upon gravelly or stony hills. Its pert little maroon flowers, with their very long tubes and erect lobes, so ridiculously out of proportion to the size of the tiny plant, give it the look of some very important small personage.

BITTER-ROOT. SPAT'LUM. TOBACCO-ROOT.

Lewisia rediviva, Pursh. Purslane Family.

Root.--Very thick. Leaves.--Clustered; linear-oblong; one or two inches long. Scapes.--One-flowered; one or two inches long; jointed in the middle, with a whorl of five to seven scarious bracts at the joint. Sepals.--Six to eight; six to nine lines long; scarious-margined. Petals.--Twelve to fifteen; rose-color, sometimes white; oblong; eight to sixteen lines long; rotately spreading in sunshine. Stamens.--Forty or more. Ovary.--One-celled. Style three- to eight-parted nearly to the base. Hab.--The mountains of California, northward and eastward.

Within our borders this little plant is not abundant, but must be sought upon mountain heights. Formerly it was supposed not to occur south of Mt. Diablo, but it has since been found in the mountains of the southern part of the State and at intermediate points. It is very abundant in Montana, where it has been adopted as the State flower.

The plants are very small, being but an inch or two high, but the flowers are handsome and showy, and the delicate, rose-colored corollas, which are often two inches across, are of an exquisite silken texture. The root is remarkably large and thick for so small a plant, and it contains a nutritious, farinaceous matter, much esteemed by the Indians for food. Among them it is known as "spat'lum," and they gather large quantities of it, which they store in bags for future use.

This was the "racine-amère," or "bitter-root," of the early French settlers. It is also known as "tobacco-root," because when boiled it has a tobacco-like odor.

The specific name, rediviva, was bestowed because of the wonderful vitality of these plants. It is known upon good authority that specimens which had been drying for two years in an herbarium continued to produce leaves, and at last, when taken out and planted, went on growing and blossomed!

This genus is an exception to the other members of the Purslane family, in having more than two sepals.

SPINELESS TUNA.

Opuntia basilaris, var. ramosa, Parish. Cactus Family.

Low; spreading; branching freely above. Joints.--Flat; smooth; without large spines, but with close tufts of minute bristles; obovate or fan-shaped; five to eight inches long; nearly as wide at the top. Flowers.--Large; brilliant rose-magenta; two or three inches long. Fruit.--Dry; sub-globose. (Flower-structure as in O. Engelmanni.) Hab.--The southern deserts and San Bernardino Mountains.

In the arid regions of the southern interior, this Opuntia is a very common one, and its large, brilliant rose-magenta flowers attract the attention wherever seen. They are very tempting blossoms, and it is hard to resist them, even though we know the penalty will be the conversion of thumbs and fingers into pin-cushions for innumerable, minute, tormenting thorns.

SNOW-BERRY.

Symphoricarpos racemosus, Michx. Honeysuckle Family.

Shrubs two to four feet high. Leaves.--Opposite; short-petioled; cuneate to oblong; entire or lobed; nine to eighteen lines long. Flowers.--Small; mostly in terminal clusters. Calyx.--Adnate to the ovary; with five-toothed border. Corolla.--Campanulate; five-lobed; three lines long; waxen; pinkish; very hairy within. Stamens.--Five; on the corolla. Ovary.--Four-celled. Berries.--Waxen-white; six lines in diameter. Hab.--Widely distributed.

In early winter the pure-white clusters of the snow-berry, on their almost leafless stems, make flecks of light through the dun woods. At this season of few woodland attractions, these berries, together with the trailing sprays of the fragrant yerba buena and the long graceful leaves of the iris, are about the only trophies to be obtained upon a walk. In early spring, when their slender twigs first begin to leaf out, these little shrubs are among the most delicate and airy of growing things, and make a tender veil of green through the shadowy woodland. The blossoms, which arrive rather late, are inconspicuous.

TREE-MALLOW.

Lavatera assurgentiflora, Kell. Mallow Family.

Shrubs.--Six to fifteen feet high. Leaves.--Three to nine inches across. Flowers.--Pink, veined with maroon. Calyx.--Five-cleft, with an involucel below, like a second calyx. Petals.--Twelve to eighteen lines long. Filaments.--Numerous; united in a column. Styles.--Numerous; filiform. Carpels.--One-seeded, in a ring around an axis; separating at maturity. Hab.--The islands off the Coast; cultivated on the mainland north to Mendocino County.