Part 81

Root.--A cluster of Dahlia-like tubers. Stems.--About two feet high. Leaves.--Narrowly oblong or lanceolate; a foot long or less; acute; undulate; narrowed into a short, very thick petiole. Flowers.--Light raisin-color; in a large panicle a foot or so long. Perianth.--Of six sepals; the outer minute; the inner about five lines long, appressed to the ovary. Stamens.--Six. Ovary.--Three-angled; one-celled. Styles three; short. Stigmas tufted. Hab.--Dry, sandy plains of Southern California.

The wild pie-plant is closely related to the garden rhubarb, and also to the dock and the sorrel. In early days in both Utah and Southern California housewives used its stems as a substitute for the cultivated pie-plant, finding them quite acceptable. The Indians have long used the root in the tanning of buckskins, and they have also found in it a bright mahogany-brown dye, with which to paint their bodies.

Of late this plant has been attracting much notice under the name "canaigre," and it is hoped that it will prove a valuable substitute for tanbark. If it does, we shall hail it with delight as the savior of our beautiful oak forests. Tannin exists in large quantities in the thick roots; but it is yet a question whether it will prove remunerative to the farmer as a crop. At Rialto a company has been formed, which employs many men to gather and prepare the roots, and there will soon be thousands of acres of it under cultivation. The tops of the plants, with the small upper portions of the roots, which have all the eyes upon them, are cut off and replanted for the next year's crop, while the remainder of the root is sliced, dried, pulverized, and leached to extract the tannin, which is then ready for use.

The plant is a very noticeable one, with its red leaf-stems and veins and its large, dense cluster of small raisin-colored flowers, and it is often seen upon our southern plains. But I am told that over the border in Lower California it grows in great abundance, covering the ground for miles. It would seem as though its cultivation might be carried on with best results where nature produces it so freely.

HORNLESS WOOLLY MILKWEED.

Gomphocarpus tomentosus, Gray. Milkweed Family.

Densely white-woolly plants, with milky juice. Stems.--One to three feet high. Leaves.--Two to four inches long. Flowers.--Several, in a pendulous cluster on yarnlike pedicels; lateral upon the stem between the leaves. Calyx.--Five-parted; inconspicuous. Corolla.--Deeply five-parted; greenish without, pinkish within. Stamens.--Five; sunk in the column and alternating with the five hoods. Hoods.--Two lines across; saccate; open down the outer face. Ovaries.--Two; pointed; capped by a flat stigma. Fruit.--A pair of follicles; with many silken-tufted seeds. Hab.--Dry hills from San Diego to Monte Diablo.

In the south by late spring the very woolly stems and foliage of this milkweed become quite noticeable before any hint of blossoms appears. The thick, gray leaves look as though they might have been cut out of heavy flannel. By May the flower-clusters begin to take definite form, and at last the buds open and reveal a most interesting flower, whose structure is quite complicated. The center of the blossom is occupied by a fleshy column, in which are sunk the anthers, and upon which are borne certain round, dark wine-colored bodies called the "hoods," which are in reality nectaries, holding honey for insect visitors. All the pollen in each anther-cell consists of a waxy mass, and the adjacent masses of different anthers are bound together by a gummy, elastic band, suspended upon the rim of the stigma. The stigma occupies the top of the fleshy column, and forms a cap, hiding from view the two tubes, or styles, leading down into the ovaries.

The milkweeds of California are divided between two genera--Asclepias and Gomphocarpus,--the difference between them lying in the presence of a horn or crest rising out of the hoods in Asclepias.

Bees visiting the blossoms of the milkweeds are said to be frequently disabled by the pollen-masses, which adhere to them in such numbers and weigh them down so heavily that they cannot climb upon their combs, but fall down and perish.

MOUNTAIN LADY'S SLIPPER.

Cypripedium montanum, Dougl. Orchis Family.

Stems.--Stout; a foot or two high; leafy. Leaves.--Four to six inches long; pointed. Flowers.--One to three; short pediceled. Sepals and petals.--Brownish; eighteen to thirty lines long; the two lower sepals united nearly to the apex. Sac.--An inch long; dull white, veined with purple. Anthers.--Two fertile (one on either side of the column); one sterile, four or five lines long, yellow, with purple spots longer than the stigma. Hab.--The mountains from Central California to the Columbia River.

The mountain lady's slipper is a rare plant with us, which affects cool, secluded spots in our mountain forests. The plants, of which two or three usually grow from a creeping rootstock, generally stand where some moisture seeps out. The leaves are ample and shapely, and the quaint flowers quiet and elegant in coloring.

The long, twisted sepals and petals and the oval sac give these blossoms the aspect of some floral daddy-long-legs or some weird brownie of the wood. We feel that we have fallen upon a rare day when we are fortunate enough to find these flowers, and we are reminded of Mr. Burroughs' lines: "How fastidious and exclusive is the Cypripedium!... It does not go in herds, like the commoner plants, but affects privacy and solitude. When I come upon it in my walks, I seem to be intruding upon some very private and exclusive company."

In our Coast Ranges we may look for these blossoms in May.

We have but two or three species of Cypripedium. C. Californicum, Gray, is similar to C. montanum, but its blossoms have comparatively short greenish-yellow sepals and petals, and the sac is from white to pale rose-color. They have a more compact look, and lack the careless grace of those of the mountain lady's slipper. Their haunts are swamps in open woodlands in the northern part of the State, where they bloom in August and September, and are often found in the company of the California pitcher-plant.

REIN-ORCHIS.

Habenaria elegans, Bolander. Orchis Family.

Root.--An oblong tuber. Stem.--Rather slender; a foot or two high. Leaves.--Two; radical; oblong; three to six inches long; eighteen lines to two inches wide. Flowers.--Small; light green; in a dense but slender spike. Sepals and petals about equal; two lines long; obtuse. Lip.--Similar, with a filiform spur three to five lines long. (Otherwise like H. leucostachys.) Hab.--Near the coast, from Monterey to Vancouver Island.

In early summer the fragrant spikes of the rein-orchis stand half-concealed under the trees and along the banks bordering wooded mountain roads. The little greenish flowers are inconspicuous, and reveal themselves only to those who have the habit of observation. Early in the spring the rather large lily-like leaves were far more noticeable and handsome; but they seemed to weary of waiting for the tardy arrival of the blossoms, and faded away long since. The little flowers are very deliberate about unfolding themselves; and I have sometimes watched them when they seemed for weeks at a standstill before yielding to the summer's invitation to come forth.

They are arranged in a three-sided spike, on two sides of which the long spurs interlace and cross one another in quite a warlike manner.

TEASEL. FULLER'S THISTLE.

Dipsacus Fullonum, L. Teasel Family.

The teasel is not an uncommon sight along our roadsides, having spread considerably since its introduction from Europe, some years ago. The strong stems are tall and slender, and bear at summit the large bristly cones, surrounded by rigid, erect bracts. These cones are the inflorescence of the plant, and each downward-pointing little hook is a bract beneath a flower. Before the flowers come out, the buds show their round, green heads, packed away down among the bristles. Then for a time the cones are ringed or covered by the delicate flesh-colored flowers; which stand out from the bristles, giving the cone a soft, fluffy look. After these have passed away, the cavities in which they were stored give the cone a pitted appearance. These burs are exquisitely symmetrical, and have long been in use by the fuller to "tease," or raise a nap upon cloth, whence the name, "teasel." They are cut in halves or quarters, and these are set in frames which are worked by machinery. Many vain attempts have been made to manufacture an instrument to take the place of the teasel; but it is difficult to find anything that is strong enough to do the work that at the same time will not injure the cloth.

This is enumerated among the plants which are supposed to foretell the weather. Mr. Dyer quotes the following:--

... "tezils, or fuller's thistle, being gathered and hanged up in the house where the air may come freely to it, upon the alteration of cold and windy weather will grow smoother, and against rain will close up its prickles."

SAMPHIRE. GLASSWORT.