Part 82

Salicornia ambigua, Michx. Goosefoot Family.

Hab.--The Coast, from San Francisco to Oregon.

Ye marshes, how candid and simple, and nothing withholding and free, Ye publish yourselves to the sky, and offer yourselves to the sea; Tolerant plains that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, Ye spread and span, like the catholic man who hath mightily won God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain.

--SIDNEY LANIER.

Though a humble enough plant in itself, the samphire, or glasswort, is the source of a wonderful glory in our marshes in the autumn. Great stretches of tide-land not already pre-empted by the tule are covered by it, showing the most gorgeous blendings of crimson, purple, olives, and bronzes, which, seen with all the added charm of shifting and changing atmospheric effects, far outrival any Oriental rug that could be conceived of.

This plant is easily known by its succulent branching, leafless stems and from the fact that it does not grow outside of the salt marshes. Its flowering is obscure, and all that can be seen is a few small stamens just protruding from the surface of the fleshy spike, which appears much like any of the other branches, the flowers being sunk in it.

The generic name is derived from two Latin words--sal, salt, and cornu, a horn--and conveys the idea of saline plants with hornlike branches. The English name, "samphire," is of French derivation, and comes originally from the old "l'herbe de Saint Pierre," formerly having been written "sampêtra" and "sampire." In Great Britain this plant is usually designated as "marsh samphire," to distinguish it from the ordinary samphire, which is a plant of the genus Crithmum.

This plant is much relished by cattle, and in England it is made into a pickle, while on the continent it is used as a pot-herb. Formerly, in Europe, it was burned in large quantities for the soda contained in its ashes.

MOTTLED SWAMP-ORCHIS. FALSE LADY'S SLIPPER.

Epipactis gigantea, Dougl. Orchis Family.

Rootstock.--Creeping. Stems.--Leafy; one to four feet high. Leaves.--Alternate; sessile; clasping; ovate below; lanceolate above; three to eight inches long. Flowers.--Three to ten; in terminal racemes; greenish, veined with purple. Sepals.--Three; petaloid; lanceolate; an inch or less long. Petals.--The two upper about equaling the sepals. The lip concave; saccate; eared at base; with a jointed, pendulous tip. Anther.--One; sessile upon the top of the column. Ovary.--One-celled. Hab.--Throughout California.

The casual observer usually alludes to this plant as a "lady's slipper," and he is not so very far wrong, for it is closely related to the Cypripedium, and resembles it much in habit, in the aspect of its leafy stems, and in the general form of its blossom. But instead of having its lip in the form of a sac, it is open and curiously jointed, the lower portion swinging freely, as upon a hinge. When this lid is raised, one can fancy some winged seraph or angel enshrined within, but when lowered the semblance is more to a monk bowed in meditation.

These beautiful plants will be found abundantly fringing our streams in June and July, and the disciples of dear old Isaac Walton who then pass down the stream with rod and line are usually attracted by their quietly elegant colors. Dull purples and greens predominate, though the lip is tinged with orange or yellow.

In Northern California and Oregon is occasionally found a rare and curious plant--the "phantom orchis," Cephalanthera Oregana, Richenb.f. This plant is white and ghostlike throughout, has stems a foot or two high, but no leaves--only three to five scarious sheathing bracts. Its blossoms are very similar in size and shape to those of Epipactis gigantea.

I have never had the pleasure of finding this floral oddity myself; but one season a friend sent me the only plant which was found in a thicket near a pretty camp upon the Sacramento River, in the Shasta region.

CALIFORNIAN PITCHER-PLANT. CALF'S-HEAD.

Darlingtonia Californica, Torr. Pitcher-plant Family.

Bog plants, with long horizontal rootstocks. Leaves.--Tubular; hooded and appendaged above; eighteen to thirty-four inches high. Scape.--Eighteen inches or more high, with green bracts crowded near the solitary nodding flower. Flower parts in fives. Sepals.--Green; twenty lines long. Petals.--Purplish; shorter than the sepals; constricted above into a terminal lobe. Stamens.--Twelve to fifteen in a circle around the ovary. Ovary.--Top-shaped; truncate; five-lobed; five-celled. Style five-lobed. Stigmas thickish. Hab.--The Sierras, from Truckee Pass into Oregon.

Our pitcher-plant is one of the most wonderful and interesting of all the forms that grow, linking, as it were, the vegetable world with the animal, by its unnatural carnivorous habits. If you would like to visit it, this warm July day, we will take a mountain trail, leading around under lofty yellow pines, Douglas spruces, and incense-cedars, making our way through the undergrowth until we come to a swamp lying upon a hillside yonder. While still some distance away, we can discern the yellowish-green of the myriad hoods as they lift themselves in the sunlight like spotted snakes.

If you have never seen the plant before, you will be in a fever of excitement till you can reach the spot and actually take one of the strange pitchers in your hand to examine it. Nothing could be cleverer than the nicely arranged wiles of this uncanny plant for the capturing of the innocent--yes, and of the more knowing ones--of the insect world who come within its enchantment. No ogre in his castle has ever gone to work more deliberately or fiendishly to entrap his victims while offering them hospitality, than does this plant-ogre. Attracted by the bizarre yellowish hoods or the tall nodding flowers, the foolish insect alights upon the former and commences his exploration of the fascinating region. He soon comes upon the wing, which often being smeared with a trail of sweets, acts as a guide to lure him on to the dangerous entrance to the hoodlike dome. Once within this hall of pleasure, he roams about, enjoying the hospitality spread for him. But at last, when he has partaken to satiety and would fain depart, he turns to retrace his steps. In the dazzlement of the translucent windows of the dome above, he loses sight of the darkened door in the floor by which he entered and flies forcibly upward, bumping his head in his eagerness to escape. He is stunned by the blow and plunged downward into the tube below. Here he struggles to rise, but countless downward-pointing, bristly hairs urge him to his fate. He sinks lower and lower in this "well of death" until he reaches the fatal waters in the bottom, where he is at length ingulfed, adding one more to the already numerous victims of this diabolical plant.

The fluid at the bottom of the well is secreted by the plant, and seems to have somewhat the action of a gastric juice in disintegrating the insects submerged in it. Many species of ants, flies, bees, hornets, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, dragon-flies, beetles, etc., are to be found in the tube, sometimes filling it to a depth of two or three inches.

The disagreeableness of the vicinity of these plants can be imagined upon a hot day when the sun is shining "upon this sad abode of death" and all the air is tainted with their sickening odor.

The mountaineers call the plant "calf's-head," because of the large yellowish domes of the pitchers.

INDEX TO LATIN NAMES

PAGE

Abro´nia latifo´lia, 146 marit´ima, 292 umbella´ta, 292 villo´sa, 292

Achille´a Millefo´lium, 97

Aconi´tum Columbia´num, 328 Fisch´eri, 328