Part 79

Though it has a coated bulb like the onion, it has none of its garlic flavor. It differs from the other umbellate-flowered genera of the Lily family in not having its flowers jointed upon their pedicels. It thus seems to be a link between the onion, on the one hand, and the beautiful Brodiaeas and Bloomerias, on the other. It is not at all an attractive plant, though its blossoms are pleasantly fragrant.

It is found on the borders of salt marshes and in subsaline soils in the interior, as well as upon high hills in stony soils.

Another species--M. serotina, Greene--common upon inland hills in the south, is quite a delicate, pretty flower. Its greenish-white blossoms, with dainty Nile-green anthers, are nearly an inch across, and each segment has a pale-green mid-nerve. The plant has a number of very long, slender leaves, and its flower-stems are sometimes two feet tall and very slender.

SILK-TASSEL TREE. QUININE-BUSH.

Garrya elliptica, Dougl. Dogwood Family.

Shrubs five to eight feet high. Leaves.--Leathery; white-woolly beneath; wavy-margined. Flowers.--Of two kinds on separate shrubs; in solitary or clustered catkins; and without petals. Staminate catkins.--Two to ten inches long, consisting of a flexile chain of funnel-form bracts, depending one from another; each having six flowers like clappers. These flowers with four hairy sepals and four stamens with distinct filaments. Pistillate catkins.--Of similar structure but stouter, more rigid. Their flowers without floral envelopes; pistils two; fleshy and hairy; stigmas filiform; dark. Hab.--Near the Coast from Monterey County to Washington.

This shrub might easily be mistaken for one of our young live-oaks, with its leathery leaves and gray bark; but the leaves are opposite, and not alternate, as with the oaks. The bark and leaves have an intensely bitter principle, similar to quinine and equally efficacious.

Early in February, after the first spell of balmy weather, the bushes put forth their flowers, and then they are exceedingly beautiful. The long pale-green chains at the ends of all the branches hang limp and flexile, shaken with every breath of wind, or, falling over other branches, drape and festoon the whole shrub exquisitely. The catkins of the female shrub are stouter and more rigid than those of the male; but when the fruit is mature, they lengthen out into beautifully tinted clusters of little papery-coated grapes, which are quite attractive in themselves. This is cultivated as an ornamental shrub in England.

G. Fremonti, Torr., another species, is distinguished by having its leaves pointed at both ends, not wavy-margined, and not permanently woolly; and also by its solitary catkins. This is the shrub usually spoken of as "quinine-bush," "fever-bush," etc., and whose leaves were used as a substitute for quinine in the early days among the miners. It is said that its roots, left in the ground after the cutting of the shrub, become marbled with green, and are then very beautiful for inlaying in ornamental woodwork.

CALIFORNIA LAUREL.

Umbellularia Californica, Nutt. Laurel Family.

Shrubs or trees, ten to one hundred feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; short-petioled; lanceolate-oblong; two to four inches long; smooth, shining green; very aromatic. Flowers.--In clusters. Sepals.--Six; greenish-white; two and a half lines long. Petals.--None. Stamens.--Nine; in three rows; the filaments of the inner row having on either side, at base, a stalked orange-colored gland. Anthers.--Four-celled; the cells opening by uplifting lids. Ovary.--One-celled. Style stout. Stigma lobed. Fruit.--Olive-like; an inch long; becoming purple. Hab.--From Oregon to San Diego.

Early in February we usually have some of our loveliest days. Life is then pulsing and throbbing everywhere at full tide. The clear sunshine, the murmur of streams, the odor of the freshly turned sod, the caroling of larks all are eloquent of the springtime. The whole air is filled with a strange, spicy fragrance which makes it a delight to breathe. The California laurel is shaking out a delicious, penetrating odor from its countless blossoms.

Mr. Sargent refers to this tree as one of the stateliest and most beautiful inhabitants of the North American forests, and one of the most striking features of the California landscape.

In France it is now much appreciated and cultivated in parks and gardens.

In Southern California it is only a shrub; but in the central and northern counties it becomes a magnificent tree, a hundred feet in height and from four to six feet in diameter. It thrives best in the rich soil along stream-banks, though it grows also upon hillsides. It would be impossible to mistake this tree for any other; for its leaves, when crushed, give out a peculiar pungent odor which, if inhaled too much, will cause headache. The odor is something like that of bay-rum. The Indians, as well as our own people, acting upon the homeopathic principle, use them as a remedy for headache. The oil is also used effectively in toothache, earache, etc., and enters into the composition of certain patent medicines.

The wood of the laurel is one of the most beautiful employed by the cabinet-maker, and it is largely used in the manufacture of choice furniture. The olive-like fruit is ripe by July, and would remain upon the tree until the next year were not the squirrels so fond of it.

This tree is known in different localities by a variety of names, such as "spice-bush," "balm of heaven," "sassafras laurel," "cajeput," "California bay-tree," "California olive," "mountain laurel," and "California laurel." But the last of these is the one prevalent where its finest forms are found.

MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY.

Cercocarpus parvifolius, Nutt. Rose Family.

Shrubs two to twenty feet high; branching from a thick base. Leaves.--Alternate; short-petioled; cuneate; serrate across the summit; more or less silky above; densely hoary-tomentose beneath; six to eighteen lines long. Flowers.--Mostly solitary; axillary. Calyx.--Narrowly tubular, with a deciduous campanulate five-lobed limb. Petals.--None. Stamens.--Fifteen to twenty-five; on the calyx. Ovary.--One-(rarely two-) celled. Style simple. Fruit.--An akene with a silky tail, at length becoming three or four inches long. Hab.--The Coast Ranges from Lake County to Southern California.

The mountain mahogany is a common shrub upon the interior hills of the Coast Ranges; and when one has once made its acquaintance, it is always easily recognized by its wedge-shaped, dark-green leaves, prominently veined and notched at the summit. Its flowers, having no petals, are green and inconspicuous; but the long, solitary plumes of its little fruit are very noticeable and pretty. Its wood is the heaviest and hardest we have.

Mr. Greene says that its leafy twigs have a sweet, birchy flavor, rendering them excellent food for cattle in late summer.

DUTCHMAN'S PIPE. PIPE-VINE.

Aristolochia Californica, Torr. Birthwort Family.

Stem.--Woody; climbing. Leaves.--Alternate; short-petioled; large; ovate-cordate, two to four inches long. Flowers.--Greenish, veined with purple. Perianth.--Pipe-shaped; the lobes of the lip leather-colored within. Anthers.--Six; sessile; adnate in pairs to the thick style under the broad lobes of the stigma; vertical. Stigma.--Three-lobed. Ovary.--Inferior; six-angled; six-celled. Fruit.--A large, leathery pod two inches long. Hab.--The Coast Ranges, from Monterey to Marin County.

This odd flower is found rather sparingly in our middle Coast Ranges from February to April, and in some parts of the Sierra foothills, reaching even to the Yosemite. As it flowers before the large leaves come out, and the blossoms are much like dead leaves in color, it requires keen eyes to find it. It usually grows on low ground, in a tangle of shrubs under the trees, often festooning gracefully from branch to branch. Before the flowers are fully open, the buds resemble ugly little brown ducks hanging from the vine.

The common blue-black butterfly is often seen hovering over this vine, and it is said that its caterpillar is so fond of the fruit that it rarely permits one to ripen.