Part 64

SKULLCAP.

Scutellaria tuberosa, Benth. Mint Family.

Stems.--Several inches high, or at length trailing, and a foot long; from small tubers. Leaves.--One inch long and less; not aromatic. Flowers.--Axillary; blue-purple. Calyx.--Bilabiate. Corolla.--Six lines or more long; tubular; bilabiate. Stamens.--Four; in pairs; ascending; contained in the helmet. Ovary.--Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Hab.--Hillsides, from San Diego northward; probably throughout the State.

The bright-green herbage and the rich purple-blue flowers of the little skullcap may be looked for early in February. In the north they grow upon dry, stony hill-slopes under the chaparral, while southward they often affect the walls of cañons, among moist, luxuriant vegetation.

Though borne in the axils of the opposite leaves, the pretty blossoms, by a twist of their pedicels, stand side by side in pairs, in a very sociable way. The curious little two-lipped calyx resembles an old-fashioned Quaker bonnet.

Another species--S. angustifolia, Pursh.--has linear to oblong leaves, an inch long; flowers an inch or more long, the lower lobe of whose corolla is hairy within, and the root is not tuberous. It is otherwise like the above.

S. Californica, Gray, is very similar to the last species, but has cream-white flowers. This is found in early summer upon dry banks.

CORAL-ROOT.

Corallorhiza Bigelovii, Wats. Orchis Family.

Leafless plants, with coral-like roots. Scapes.--Flesh-colored; six to twenty-four inches high, with two to four scarious, sheathing bracts. Flowers.--Few to many; sessile. Perianth.--Of six segments. The five upper yellowish, striped with purple. The lip yellowish, tipped with deep red-purple. Anther.--One; resting upon the column like a lid; falling early. Ovary.--One-celled. Hab.--Central and northern Coast Ranges and Sierras.

The coral-root is very rare in some localities, and one may not meet it more than a few times. But there are favored spots where its flesh-colored stems rear themselves luxuriantly. One year I saw a magnificent bunch of them in the hands of some friends who were taking them to San Francisco to furnish a rare and costly decoration for some festive occasion. Some of the stems were two feet tall and thickly covered above with the odd flowers, making a cluster which it would be difficult to equal for quiet elegance of coloring.

The plants are often found in redwood groves or upon wooded hill-slopes of north exposure, where the dull stems and flowers blend so nicely into the dead needles and leaves upon the ground that it is difficult to detect their presence.

As its name indicates, the root is the counterpart of a spray of branching coral.

Another species--C. multiflora, Nutt.--has stems of a colder purple; and the lip of the flower is white, spotted with purple, somewhat fan-shaped and three-lobed.

CALIFORNIA LILAC. BLUE MYRTLE. BLUE-BLOSSOM.

Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, Esch. Buckthorn Family.

Varying from small, prostrate shrubs in exposed places, to erect shrubs or small trees. Branches.--Strongly angled; not spiny. Leaves.--Elliptical; twelve to eighteen lines long; three-nerved; smooth and shining above. Flowers.--Bright to pale blue, rarely white; in dense clusters about three inches long, terminating the usually elongated, somewhat leafy peduncles. Capsules.--Globose; two lines in diameter; smooth, not crested; slightly lobed. (See Ceanothus.) Hab.--Near the coast, from Monterey northward into Oregon.

In the spring our chaparral-covered slopes begin to take on a bluish tinge, like the misty smoke of distant camp-fires, for which the blossoms of the California lilac are responsible. This is a graceful evergreen shrub, with rich, shining leaves, among which the abundant feathery clusters of tiny blue flowers find a charming setting. The blossoms are deliciously fragrant, filling the cool air with perfume.

This shrub is never found far away from the coast, and it reaches its greatest beauty in Mendocino County, where it becomes a tree, sometimes thirty-five feet high. Its wood is exceedingly brittle. In early days it used to be cultivated in San Francisco gardens before it was crowded out by foreign shrubs, often far less worthy.

It is known in some localities as "blue myrtle," and in others as "blue-blossom." The name "California lilac," by which it is most often known, is more generally and more appropriately applied to this species of Ceanothus than to any of the others.

The dark seeds are a favorite food of the quail.

BLUE LARKSPUR. ESPUELA DEL CABALLERO.

Delphinium, Tourn. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.

California is rich in beautiful larkspurs, but the species are very difficult of determination and not well defined as yet. We have two well-marked scarlet species; but confusion still reigns among the blue and the white. Some of the latter are poisonous to sheep and cattle, causing great losses to the herds every year in some localities.

Among the blue larkspurs are some of our handsomest spring flowers. Their slender wands, covered with magnificent large blossoms, rise abundantly on every side upon some of the mesas of our seashore, making charming flower-gardens upon the plains. They are so lavishly bestowed that every comer may gather his fill and still none be missed. In color they are matchless--of the richest of Mazarin blue and purple-blue.

Other species are to be found upon the slopes of interior valleys and scattered all through the Coast Ranges and the Sierra foothills. In midsummer, which is the vernal springtime of the mountains, many lovely species deck the alpine meadows and brooksides.

The Spanish-Californians have a pretty title for these blossoms--"espuela del caballero"--"the cavalier's spur."

CAT'S-EARS. PUSSY'S-EARS.