Part 71

Trichostema lanceolatum, Benth. Mint Family.

One or two feet high; branching from the base. Leaves.--Opposite; sessile; crowded; lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; gradually acuminate; densely pubescent; several-nerved; an inch or more long. Flowers.--Blue; in axillary, short-peduncled, dense clusters. Calyx.--Five-cleft. Corolla.--Six lines long; with filiform tube; and border with five almost similar lobes. Stamens.--Four; of two lengths. Filaments filiform; long-exserted and curled. Ovary.--Of four seed like nutlets. Style long; filiform; two-cleft at the tip. Hab.--Throughout Western California.

Of all the plants of our acquaintance, the common blue-curls is the most aggressive and ill-smelling. Its odor is positively sickening. Some years ago, when it was first new to me, I brought some of it down from Sonoma County upon the train, and, even though it had been carefully wrapped, I was obliged to deposit it in the wood-box, as far as possible from the passengers.

The generic name comes from two Greek words, signifying hair and stamen, and was bestowed on account of the capillary filaments. The common name also refers to the long, curling blue stamens.

This species blossoms late in summer, and grows upon very dry ground, where it seems almost a miracle for any plant to thrive.

ROMERO. WOOLLY BLUE-CURLS.

Trichostema lanatum, Benth. Mint Family.

Shrubby; two to five feet high. Leaves.--Opposite and fascicled in the axils; an inch or so long; green above; white-woolly beneath. Flowers.--Blue; in terminal clusters sometimes a foot long; covered with dense violet wool. Calyx.--Five-toothed. Corolla.--Nearly an inch long; with tube half its length and border violet-shaped. Stamens and Style.--Two inches long. Ovary.--Of four seedlike nutlets. Hab.--From San Diego to Santa Barbara.

When the first scorching winds of the desert have withered and laid low the lovely flowers of the southern plains, the Romero is just coming into bloom upon dry hillsides. Its shrubby form, with densely crowded leaves, becomes conspicuous by reason of its long spikes of purple-woolly buds and blossoms. This inflorescence is an exquisite thing, more like the production of a Paris milliner than a guileless creation of nature. The individual blossoms have much the look of alert little blue violets wearing long, elegant lilac aigrets. Both leaf and flower have a pleasant aromatic fragrance, entirely unlike the dreadful odor of the common blue-curls.

Among the Spanish-Californians it is known altogether by the musical name of "Romero," and is one of their most highly valued medicinal herbs, being considered a panacea for many troubles. Fried in olive oil, it becomes an ointment which alleviates pain and cures ulcers; dried and reduced to powder, it is a snuff very efficacious for catarrh; and made into a tincture, it is used as a liniment. This plant is also sometimes called "black sage."

HARVEST BRODIAEA. LARGE-FLOWERED BRODIAEA.

Brodiaea grandiflora, Smith. Lily Family.

Corm.--Fibrous-coated. Leaves.--Narrowly linear; somewhat cylindrical. Scape.--Four to twelve inches high. Pedicels.--Three to ten, rarely one; unequal. Perianth.--Violet; waxen; ten to twenty lines long; broadly funnel-form; six-cleft; lobes recurving. Stamens.--Three; opposite the inner segments. Staminodia.--Three; strap-shaped; entire; white; erect; about equaling the stamens. Ovary.--Sessile; three-celled. Style stout. Stigma three-lobed. Hab.--From Ventura to the British boundary in the Coast Ranges and Sierras.

In the latter part of May and early in June, just as the grain is mellowing in the fields, the dry grasses of our hill-slopes and roadsides begin to reveal the beautiful blossoms of the "harvest Brodiaea." Seen at its best, this is one of our finest species. It sends up a scape a foot high, bearing from five to ten of the large, lily-like, violet flowers. They are somewhere described as varying to rose. I have never seen them of this color, though a flash of them caught when riding by a field is often suggestive of a pink flower.

These plants vary considerably in size, in some localities blooming when but an inch or two high, and in others having their tall scape crowned with as many as ten of the fine blossoms. These have their segments nerved with brown upon the outside. The clear-white stamens stand opposite the outer segments, alternating with the white staminodia. The leaves have dried away before the coming of the blossoms.

B. terrestris, Kell., common throughout Central California, is always found in sandy soil. Its perianth is less than an inch long, and its staminodia are yellow, with inrolled edges. This is clearly distinguished by these characteristics, added to the fact that its flower-cluster has no common stalk or scape, but seems to sit upon the ground, giving the separate flowers the appearance of coming from the ground.

VIOLET SNAPDRAGON.

Antirrhinum vagans, Gray. Figwort Family.

Herbs with prehensile branchlets. Leaves.--Alternate; short-petioled; lanceolate to oblong-ovate; entire; an inch long. Flowers.--Six lines long; lavender. Sepals.--Five; upper one large; oblong; the others small, linear. Stamens.--Four; in pairs; on the corolla. Filaments slender. Anthers with two diverging cells. Ovary.--Two-celled. Style awl-shaped. Hab.--Throughout the western part of the State.

When the first dryness of summer is beginning to make itself felt, the tall wandlike sprays of the little lilac snapdragon begin to appear along our dusty roadsides. A curious feature of this plant is to be found in the long threadlike branchlets produced in the axils of the leaves. These are like so many little arms, apparently waving about in aimless abandon, but in reality vigilant of any opportunity to grasp some convenient object of support.

Another species--A. glandulosum, Lindl.--is common from Santa Cruz southward. This may be known by its pink and yellow flowers, its very viscid, leafy stems, three to five feet tall, and its lack of prehensile branchlets. This has somewhat more the look of the familiar garden species. Its anthers are arranged like teeth in the roof of its mouth, and the children, by slightly pinching the sides of its funny little countenance, can make it open its mouth in quite a formidable manner.

Sir John Lubbock, writing of the fertilization of flowers, says: "Thus the Antirrhinum, or snapdragon, is completely closed, and only a somewhat powerful insect can force its way in. The flower is in fact a strong-box, of which the humble-bee only has the key."

CALIFORNIAN HAREBELL. BELLFLOWER.

Campanula prenanthoides, Durand. Harebell or Campanula Family.

Stems.--Several inches to two feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; ovate-oblong to lanceolate; one inch or less long. Flowers.--Blue; on recurved pedicels. Calyx.--Growing to the ovary below; with five awl-shaped teeth. Corolla.--Five to eight lines long; with short tube and slender, spreading, recurved lobes. Stamens.--Five. Ovary.--Three- to five-celled. Style club-shaped; much exserted. Stigma becoming three-lobed. Hab.--Coast woods from Monterey to Mendocino County, and through the northern Sierras.

The fragile blossoms of the harebell lurk in the seclusion of our cool cañons or peer down at us from the banks of shaded mountain roads toward the end of July. We almost wonder that this ethereal flower dares delay its coming so long when outside its cool retreat all is parched and dry. It forms a delicate contrast to its more robust English sister, the harebell so often celebrated by the poets.

SELF-HEAL. HEAL-ALL.

Brunella vulgaris, L. Mint Family.