Chapter II: Part 2

A noble plant, with no trunk, but sending up a magnificent shaft of flowers, from five to fifteen feet tall, springing from a huge, symmetrical bunch of dagger-like, bluish-green leaves. The cluster is composed of hundreds of waxy, cream-colored blossoms, sometimes tinged with purple, two inches across, crowded so closely together along the upper part of the stalk that the effect is a great, solid mass of bloom, three feet long. The white filaments are swollen, tipped with pale-yellow anthers; the pistil cream-color, with green stigmas. The large, white bracts are stiff and coarse, something like parchment, folded back so that the pinkish stalk is ornamented with a series of white triangles, symmetrically arranged. A hillside covered with hundreds of these magnificent spires of bloom, towering above the chaparral, is a wonderful sight. After they have blossomed, the tall, white stalks remain standing for some time, so that the hills look as if they had been planted with numbers of white wands.

The genus Cleistoyucca resembles Yucca, but the divisions of the flower are very thick and there is no style.

[Sidenote: =Joshua Tree
Tree Yucca=
_Cleistoyúcca arboréscens (Yucca)_
=Greenish-white
Spring, summer
Cal., Ariz., Utah=]

A tree, grotesque and forbidding in aspect, but with a weird sort of beauty, looming black against the pale desert landscape, with a great, thick, rough trunk, fifteen to thirty feet high, and a few thick, contorted branches, stretching out like a giant's arms and pointing ominously across the sandy waste. The branches are thatched with the shaggy husks of dead leaves and from their tips they thrust out a great bunch of dagger-like leaves and a big, ponderous cluster of pallid, greenish flowers or heavy, yellowish fruits. The coarse flowers are about two inches across, with a clammy smell like toadstools, and the bracts are dead white. This grows in the Mohave Desert and is at its best around Hesperia, where one may see the most fantastic forest that it is possible to imagine. Elsewhere it is smaller and more like other Yuccas in shape. It was called Joshua Tree by the early settlers, it is said because they fancied that its branches pointed towards the Promised Land. The fruits are relished by the Indians, who utilize the fibers from the leaves for weaving baskets, ropes, hats, horse-blankets, etc., and make a pulp from the stems, used for soap.

[very small part of cluster]]

* * * * *

There are several kinds of Trillium, of North America and Asia; with tuberous root-stocks; three, netted-veined leaves, in a whorl at the top of the stem; a single flower with three, green sepals, three petals, six, short stamens, and three styles; capsule berry-like and reddish, containing many seeds. The Latin name means "triple."

[Sidenote: =Wake-robin
Birthroot=
_Tríllium ovàtum_
=White
Spring, summer
Northwest=]

A charming plant, about a foot tall, with a single beautiful blossom, set off to perfection by its large, rich green leaves. The flower is two or three inches across, with lovely white petals, which gradually change to deep pink. It is a pleasure to find a company of these attractive plants in the heart of the forest, where their pure blossoms gleam in the cool shade along some mountain brook. They resemble the eastern Large-flowered Trillium and grow in the Coast Ranges.

There are three kinds of Xerophyllum.

[Sidenote: =Squaw-grass
Bear Grass=
_Xerophýllum tènax_
=White
Summer
Northwest=]

This is a magnificent plant, from two to six feet high, with a very stout, leafy stem, springing from a very large tuft of wiry, grass-like leaves, which spread out gracefully like a fountain. They are from one to two and a half feet long, dark-green on the upper side and pale-gray on the under, with rough edges. The imposing flower cluster is borne at the top of the stalk and is about a foot long, broad at the base and tapering to a blunt point, and composed of hundreds of fragrant, cream-white flowers, each about half an inch across, with slender, white pedicels, and so closely crowded together that the effect is very solid, yet made feathery by the long stamens. It is a fine sight to come across a company of these noble plants in a mountain meadow, rearing their great shafts of bloom far above their neighbors. They are very handsome around Mt. Rainier. They are said to blossom only once in five or seven years and then to die. The leaves are used by Indians in making their finest baskets. Unfortunately the size of this book does not admit of an illustration.

* * * * *

There are two kinds of Maianthemum, an eastern one and the following, which also grows in Europe and Asia.

[Sidenote: =Wild Lily-of-the-valley=
_Maiánthemum bifòlium_
=White
Spring, summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal.=]

This is a very attractive, woodland plant, from four to fourteen inches tall, with handsome, glossy, rich green leaves, and a rather stout stem, bearing a pretty cluster, two or three inches long, of many, small, waxy-white flowers, with four divisions. They have four stamens, with thread-like filaments and small, yellowish anthers, the stigma has two lobes and the berry is red. This grows in rich soil in the mountains and is much handsomer than its eastern relation and strongly sweet-scented. The Latin name means "blooming in May."

There are several kinds of Streptopus, much like Disporum, but the pedicels of the flowers are twisted or bent.

[Sidenote: =White Twisted Stalk=
_Stréptopus amplexifòlius_
=Whitish
Spring, summer
U. S. except Southwest=]

This is a fine plant, two or three feet tall, with a smooth, branching, bending stem and handsome leaves, thin in texture, with strongly marked veins and pale with whitish "bloom" on the under side. The greenish-white flowers are about half an inch long and hang on very slender, crooked pedicels, from under the leaves, and the oval berries are red and contain many seeds. This grows in moist soil, in cold mountain woods, up to an altitude of ten thousand feet and across the continent. The Greek name means "twisted stalk."

[Sidenote: =Pink Twisted Stalk=
_Stréptopus ròseus_
=Pink
Spring, summer
U. S. except Southwest=]

A smaller plant, from one to two and a half feet tall, with a slightly hairy stem, ornamented with pretty leaves, green on both sides and hairy along the edges, and hung with pretty, little, dull purplish-pink flowers, more or less streaked with deeper color and less than half an inch long. This grows in the same sort of places as the last and is also found across the continent.

* * * * *

There are two kinds of Stenanthella; smooth herbs, with bulbs and small nodding flowers, in bracted clusters, the divisions of the perianth separate, without glands or distinct claws; the short stamens inserted at the base of the divisions; the styles three; the capsule with three beaks and containing oblong, winged seeds.

[Sidenote: =Stenanthella=
_Stenanthélla occidentàlis_
=Brownish
Spring, summer
Northwest=]

This is a graceful plant, from ten to twenty inches tall, with long, rather narrow leaves and a slender stem, terminating in a long spray of about ten, rather pretty, little brownish-green or purplish flowers, each less than half an inch long. This grows in shady places.

Pink Twisted Stalk--Streptopus roseus.

Stenanthella occidentalis.]

There are several kinds of Camassia, one eastern; herbs with onion-like bulbs, long, narrow leaves and thin, dry bracts. The flowers are blue of various shades, with six, separate, somewhat spreading divisions, each with a stamen on its base, the anthers swinging, the style threadlike, with a three-cleft tip; the capsule three-lobed, with several seeds in each compartment. Varieties of Camassia have long been cultivated in European gardens. The name is derived from Quamash, the Indian name for these plants.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: =Camass, Quamash=
_Camássia quámash_
=Blue
Summer
Northwest and Utah=]

Looking across the vivid green of wet meadows and marshes, the deep blue patches of this flower are often conspicuous and beautiful. They grow from one to over two feet high, taller than the grasslike leaves, forming a loose cluster, with papery bracts. The flowers are from an inch and a half to over two inches across, the six divisions spreading out into a star. The buds are tinged with turquoise-blue and striped with purple, giving a fine iridescent effect, and the flowers, which fade very quickly, are often exceedingly handsome, varying in color from dark-blue to white, but usually deep, bright purplish-blue, with a green ovary, a long purple style and yellow anthers, with purple filaments. They are larger and handsomer in northern California than in Yosemite. Grizzly bears are fond of the bulbs and the Indians of the Northwest prized them as a delicacy, indeed the Nez Percé war in Idaho was caused by encroachments on a territory where they were abundant. They were cooked elaborately in pits, care being taken to avoid the poisonous bulbs of the Death Camass, which resemble them. The Indians also boil the bulbs in water and make good molasses from them, which they use on festive occasions. This is sometimes called Wild Hyacinth, but the name is poor, as it does not resemble a hyacinth in character.

There are six kinds of Clintonia, of North America and Asia; with creeping rootstocks and a few, broad root-leaves; flowers without bracts, their divisions separate, equal or nearly so, each with a stamen at its base; style with two or three, inconspicuous lobes; fruit a berry. These plants were named in honor of De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York, a naturalist, interested in botany, so Thoreau need not have been so annoyed at their having been given this name.

[Sidenote: =Red Clintonia=
_Clintònia Andrewsiàna_
=Red, pink
Spring, summer
Oreg., Cal.=]

A magnificent plant, one or two feet high, with five or six, exceedingly handsome, glossy, rich green leaves, very conspicuous and sometimes a foot long, and a tall, slightly downy flower-stalk, usually with a few flowers scattered along it, and crowned with a large, roundish cluster of beautiful flowers. They are about three-quarters of an inch long, very rich in color, a deep shade of warm reddish-pink, or crimson, not common in flowers. The form of the cluster varies a good deal; sometimes the flowers are not mostly at the top, but clustered quite thickly along all the upper part of the stalk. The large, deep-blue berries are very handsome and, altogether, this is one of our most conspicuous and attractive woodland plants, especially when growing in the deep shade of redwood forests.

[Sidenote: =Queen-cup White Clintonia=
_Clintònia uniflòra_
=White
Spring
Northwest=]

In rich moist soil, in shady woods, we find this lovely flower, with a white chalice and heart of pale gold, surrounded by two or three, beautiful, large, glossy leaves, resembling those of Lily-of-the-valley, and fairly carpeting the ground in favorable situations. The slender flower-stalk is hairy, six to ten inches tall, and usually bears a single flower, an inch or more across, with pure-white petals that soon drop off. The fruit is a handsome blue berry.

Red Clintonia--C. Andrewsiana.]

There are a good many kinds of Vagnera, natives of America and Asia, with a single stem, scaly below and leafy above; the leaves alternate, with short leaf-stalks or none; the flowers small, the divisions equal and spreading, white or greenish, in a cluster; the berry round, usually with one or two seeds.

[Sidenote: =False Solomon's Seal.
Wild Spikenard=
_Vágnera amplexicàulis (Smilacina)_
=White
Spring
West=]

It is a pity that all flowers cannot have really individual names. "False" is especially unattractive and "Solomon's Seal" is confusing, as the flowers are not alike, but this is the old name used all over the world, so it will have to stand, though unworthy of this pleasing plant. It is from one to three feet high, with large, light-green leaves, usually slightly downy on the under side. The flower-cluster is sweet-scented and composed of numerous, very small, cream-white flowers, the conspicuous parts of which are the stamens, white and larger than the petals, giving a feathery appearance to the whole cluster. The fruit is a light-red berry, very finely sprinkled with dark-red dots. This fine tall plant is very decorative and is common in rich moist woods. The name was given in honor of Wagner.

[Sidenote: =Star-flowered Solomon's Seal=
_Vágnera sessilifòlia (Smilacina)_
=White
Spring
West=]

A gracefully bending plant, from one to two feet high, springing from a slender root-stock. The bright light-green leaves, without leaf-stalks and clasping at base, have a slight "bloom" like some lily leaves and are handsome and conspicuous, but not at all coarse, and are usually very smooth, but sometimes minutely downy. The small, delicate, cream-white flowers, on a very slender, angled flower-stalk, grow in a loose cluster and the berries are reddish-purple or nearly black. This charming plant sometimes forms large patches in moist, rich soil in shady places and its pretty foliage is often very noticeable beside the railroad tracks in Utah.

False Solomon's Seal--Vagnera amplexicaulis.]

Fairy Bells are graceful plants, growing in rich, moist, mountain woods, with smoothish, or slightly hairy, branching stems, leafy above and with scaly bracts below, springing from slender root-stocks; leaves netted-veined, alternate, without leaf-stalks, smooth and thin in texture and often clasping the stem; rather small, bell-shaped flowers, hanging from under the leaves, with six stamens and a slender style, with one or three stigmas; the fruit a yellow or red berry. _Disporum_ is from the Greek meaning "double-seed," as in some kinds there are two seeds in each cell of the ovary.

[Sidenote: =Fairy Bells
Drops of Gold=
_Dísporum trachycàrpum (Prosartes)_
=Yellowish-white
Spring, summer
West=]

A very attractive mountain plant, growing near streams. It is from nine to twenty-four inches tall, with an angled stem, pale green above and reddish below. The delicate flowers, about half an inch long, with a three-lobed green stigma and yellow anthers, grow singly or in clusters of two or three, nodding shyly under the pretty leaves, which are dull above and very shiny on the under side, with oddly crumpled edges and set obliquely on the stem. The berry when unripe is orange color and suggested the name Drops of Gold, but becomes bright red when it matures in June. _D. Hookeri_ is similar, but the style is not three-lobed and the leaves are slightly rough to the touch and are not so thin or crumpled. They spread out so flat that they make a green roof over the flowers, completely screening them from the passer-by. This grows in shady woods, but not near streams.

Drops of Gold--Disporum Hookeri.]

Perhaps the most characteristic western flowers are the members of the genus Calochortus. They grow freely all through the West, as far north as British America, and down into Mexico, but they never get east of Nebraska, so these gay and graceful flowers may be considered the peculiar property of the West. Calochortus means "beautiful grass" and the leaves are usually grasslike, the stems slender and the flowers bright in color, decorative and interesting in form. They have three sepals, often greenish, and three large, colored petals, with a honey-gland, usually covered with hairs, at the base of each. They are allied to true Tulips, so the popular name is suitable, and they fall into three groups: Globe Tulips, with nodding, globular flowers, and nodding capsules; Star Tulips, with erect, star-like flowers and nodding capsules; and Mariposa Tulips, with large, somewhat cup-shaped flowers and erect capsules. Mariposa means "butterfly" in Spanish and is appropriate, for the brilliant hairy spots on the petals are wonderfully like the markings of a butterfly's wing and the airy blossoms seem to have but just alighted on the tips of their slender stalks. They usually grow on dry open hillsides and their leaves have often withered away before the flowers bloom. The various forms run into each other, so that it is impossible to determine all the different species. They have solid bulbs, some of which are edible, considered a delicacy by the Indians and called Noonas.

[Sidenote: =Golden Lily Bell
Yellow Globe Tulip=
_Calochórtus amàbilis_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]

A charming plant, with pale bluish-green foliage, with a beautiful "bloom," which sets off the clear-yellow blossoms to perfection. There are from two to twenty flowers on each stem and the petals are smooth, except for a neat, stiff fringe of hairs along the margins and the matted hairs on the glands, which are often reddish. These lovely flowers, common in northern California, are peculiarly fresh in color and when growing among the grass in the shade of oak trees they have the springlike charm of Daffodils in English woods.

[Sidenote: =Satin-bell.
White Globe Tulip=
_Calochórtus álbus_
=White
Spring
California=]

Beautiful and popular flowers, with a great deal of individuality and quite Japanese in the decorative arrangement of the graceful stems and glossy, rich green foliage. The narrow root-leaf is over a foot long and spreads on the ground and other smaller leaves are disposed along the bending stem, which is from one to two feet tall and hung with pretty light-green buds and beautiful drooping blossoms, over an inch long, pearly white, sometimes tinged with lilac, with a satiny sheen and delicate yet crisp in texture. The papery sepals are greenish-white and the petals are sometimes tinged with purple at the base and are prettily fringed with hairs along the edges and often cross their tips in a very engaging way. They are covered inside with long, silky, white or yellow hairs and the glands are crescent-shaped, with close, short, sticky, white or yellow hairs, and form pale-green humps on the outside of the petals; the anthers are cream-color and the pistil whitish. The capsule is one or two inches long, with a short beak and brown seeds. These plants grow on shady banks in the Coast Ranges and have several pretty common names, such as Lantern of the Fairies and Alabaster Tulip, as well as the misleading name Hairbell, which causes this flower to be confused with the Harebell or Campanula.

[Sidenote: =White Star Tulip=
_Calochórtus nùdus_
=White
Summer
California=]

This is a delicate and charming little flower, growing best in meadowy places in the woods of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at moderate altitudes, sometimes to a height of over seven thousand feet. The single, ribbonlike leaf is much taller than the flower-stalk, which is only a few inches high and bears several pretty flowers, measuring over an inch across, with pale-green sepals and three pure-white or pale-lilac, fan-shaped petals, with a little notch in the edge, almost without hairs and marked with a lilac crescent at the base; the honey-gland is divided crosswise by a toothed scale and the anthers are light blue. The nodding capsule is pointed at both ends.

[Sidenote: =White Pussy's Ears=
_Calochórtus Maweànus_
=White, gray
Spring
Cal., Oreg.=]

A charming little plant, with lovely little flowers, about an inch across, with white or pale-lilac sepals and white petals, hairy all over inside, often lilac at the base, the crescent-shaped gland covered with violet hairs and the anthers and pistil lilac. Usually the general effect is of a most delicate shade of gray and the little blossoms do not droop, but look straight up at one from among the grass. This is common in northern California.

[Sidenote: =Yellow Pussy's Ears.
Yellow Star Tulip.=
_Calochórtus Bénthami_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]

Much like the last in character, from three to seven inches tall, with bluish-green, stiffish leaves and a few quaintly pretty flowers. They are about an inch across, clear light-yellow, with smooth sepals and the petals thickly covered with yellow hairs and sometimes brown at the base. This is common in the Sierra foothills.

Pussy's Ears--C. Maweanus.]

[Sidenote: =Butterfly Tulip
Mariposa Tulip=
_Calochórtus lùteus var. oculàtus_
=Many colors
Spring, summer
California=]

The commonest kind in northern California, found in both the Sierra Nevada and Coast Mountains, and one of the most beautiful of all the Mariposas. The broad petals, each about an inch and a half long, are usually white, lilac, or yellowish, with an "eye" like that on a peacock's feather, giving the name _oculatus_. Occasionally they are deep rose-color, as in the colored picture, though this is not typical, and have a vivid blotch of shaded maroon and crimson and an orange spot on each petal, with some maroon-colored hairs at the base. The sepals are striped with pink and maroon and twist into spirals as they fade; the pistil and the blunt anthers are mauve; the honey-gland narrowly crescent-shaped; the leaves pale-green and the delicate stem over a foot tall. This Mariposa is extremely variable and seems sometimes to merge into _C. venústus_, a similar kind, and gorgeous varieties of both may be seen along the Yosemite road on the down grade to Wawona. There are many similar Mariposas, but the casual flower-lover who finds any of these beautiful flowers will probably be satisfied to know that they are Butterfly Tulips, without going into the technical peculiarities which differentiate them.

[Sidenote: =Yellow Mariposa Tulip=
_Calochórtus lùteus var. citrìnus_
=Yellow
Spring
California=]

A fine robust plant, about a foot tall, with a stout stem, light, bright green leaves, and exceedingly handsome flowers, over two inches across. The sepals are yellowish, with a black spot and streaks of brown, and the petals are deep lemon-yellow, each with a rich maroon spot near the center and a hairy, brown, crescent-shaped gland below, often flecked with maroon at the margins and base, with cream-colored anthers and a yellowish pistil. This is very much like a Tulip in character and looks very gay and cheerful growing in green fields. The typical _C. luteus_ is similar, but smaller and duller in color.

[Sidenote: =Orange Mariposa Tulip=
_Calochórtus Kénnedyi_
=Orange-red
Spring
Cal., Ariz.=]

A wonderful flower, exceedingly brilliant and unusual in color, not quite like anything else in nature. The stout, firm stem is from two inches to over a foot tall and the leaves are dark-green, with a delicate bluish "bloom." The flowers are about two inches across, with pale-green sepals, bordered with pale-pink and orange inside, and beautiful petals, thick in texture and easily bruised, delicate peach-color outside and bright orange-vermilion within, each petal ornamented with a purplish gland, covered with matted hairs and crossed with a band of long vermilion hairs. When the stems are very short the flaming flowers look like Crocuses, sprouting out of the barren desert soil, but when they are tall they have the gorgeous effect of Tulips. These plants grow in the Mohave Desert, but are rather rare in California. They are very abundant in the foothills and on the mountain slopes of Arizona, giving a beautiful orange-red color to the landscape for miles in spring, there being literally thousands in a small area.

[Sidenote: =Sego Lily
Mariposa Tulip=
_Calochórtus Nuttállii_
=White, pale lilac
Early summer
Ariz., Cal., Utah=]

These pretty flowers are about two inches across, their white petals tinged with yellowish-green or lilac, and often delicately fluted at the edges, often with hairy spots inside the petals at their base, the whole flower very variable in coloring. These Mariposas grow all through the Southwest. In the Grand Canyon they begin to come out early in May, among the dry grasses halfway down the Bright Angel trail, and are a lovely shade of clear lilac. The slender stem, about a foot tall, often bears a small bulb near the base. It is called Sego Lily (pronounced Sègo) in Utah and is the "State flower." Its bulbs formed a substantial part of the food of the early Mormon pioneers when they crossed the desert and the flower is therefore held in great esteem in Utah.

IRIS FAMILY. _Iridaceae._

A large family, widely distributed and found throughout our continent. Perennial herbs, with bracts; the leaves long, narrow, toothless, and sheathing; the flowers showy, perfect and regular, twisted in the bud, not falling off in withering, of three and six parts; the three stamens on the base of the sepals, their anthers turning outward; the single style with three branches; the ovary inferior, becoming a three-celled, usually three-angled, many-seeded capsule. This family is noticeably distinguished from the Lily family by the inferior ovary, and from the Amaryllis family by the three stamens.

There are many kinds of Iris. To the casual observer the flowers appear to have nine petals of different sizes, but in reality there are three sepals, three petals, and three petal-like branches of the style. The three outer divisions, or sepals, are large and spread or turn down; the three inner divisions, or petals, are usually narrower and are erect; the style branches arch over and under each is a stamen. The sepals and petals have claws, which are united below and form a tube; the capsule is large and contains many, flat, black seeds, in one or two rows in each cell; the large rootstock is usually fleshy. Iris is from the Greek for "rainbow," in allusion to the variegated tints, and Flower-de-luce from the French "fleur-de-lis," or "lily-flower." Many odd and beautiful kinds are cultivated from the Old World. Orris-root is made from the roots of a Florentine species.

[Sidenote: =Western Blue Flag=
_Ìris Missouriénsis_
=Violet, blue
Spring, summer
West, except Wash, and Oreg.=]

A very handsome and decorative plant, growing in large clumps, in damp situations, from stout, creeping rootstocks. The stiff, sword-shaped leaves, mostly shorter than the stems, are smooth and light bluish-green and the stout stems, from one to two feet high, bear usually two, pale-violet flowers, about three inches long, emerging from thin, papery bracts. The sepals are white, or pale blue, delicately veined with violet, with a yellow-veined rib down the middle, the petals are pale blue or pale violet, veined with purple, and the buds are yellowish, veined with brown. This grows in profusion in the Yosemite meadows, at the foot of El Capitan, and is delicately beautiful, but would be more effective if the coloring were a little stronger.

[Sidenote: =Douglas Iris=
_Ìris Douglasiàna_
=Purple, lilac, cream
Spring, summer
Cal., Oreg.=]

A beautiful kind, very common in the Coast Ranges. It grows in patches, or singly, and has rather dark green leaves, longer than the flower-stalks, and lovely flowers, which vary exceedingly in color. Near the coast they are usually bluish-purple, but in mountain woods they run from violet and mauve to pink, yellow, and white. They are often striped with white and yellow, delicately veined with purple, and measure three or four inches across. In the redwood forests, in northern California, they are peculiarly large and beautiful, their delicate tints of cream and straw-color, tinged with mauve and marked with reddish-purple, and wonderfully set off by their dark forest background. This kind often blooms throughout the rainy season, but chiefly in early spring.

[Sidenote: =Hartweg's Iris=
_Ìris Hartwégi_
=Yellow and violet
Summer
California=]

This odd and pretty little Iris grows in half-dry, open forests, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The many flower-stems, from six to twelve inches tall, are overtopped by some of the long, narrow leaves and the flowers are from one and a half to two inches long, either yellow, veined with violet, or pale-violet, veined with purple. The two color forms often grow together and attract much attention from tourists. They look very pretty, springing from a carpet of fallen pine-needles, in the forests along the Wawona road near Yosemite.

[Sidenote: =Ground Iris=
_Ìris macrosìphon_
=Blue, purple
Spring, winter
California=]

A beautiful kind, forming low clumps of many, very narrow leaves, from five to twenty inches long and much taller than the flower-stalks. The handsome flowers are over three inches across, bright purplish-blue, the sepals veined with darker color and marked with a white stripe. This is common on grassy hills near the coast and farther inland becomes taller and paler in color. The flowers are slightly sweet-scented and begin to bloom in January. The Hupa Indians used the leaves for making twine and rope for their nets and snares. There are many other beautiful western Irises.

There are numerous kinds of Sisyrinchium, attractive little plants, all American, many from South America; with fibrous roots; grasslike leaves; slender, flat stems, sometimes branching; papery and green bracts and pretty flowers, that soon wither, on very slender pedicels, the six spreading divisions all alike; the filaments of the stamens united; the style branches slender, the capsule roundish, containing round seeds.

[Sidenote: =Blue-Eyed Grass=
_Sisyrínchium béllum_
=Blue Summer
Cal., Oreg.=]

The deep blue stars of this pretty plant are a beautiful feature of the fields near Santa Barbara, and in other parts of California, in summer; in fact they are so plentiful in some places that they are a menace to the farmers. They grow in clumps, about a foot tall, among the grass. The stems are somewhat branching, the leaves are shorter than the stem, and the bracts are about an inch long, green and sheathing. There are about seven flowers on each stem, in a loose cluster, each about an inch across and handsomer than their relations in the East. They vary in tint from bright blue to purple, with a yellow "eye," and their divisions are prettily notched at the tips, with a little prong. The anthers are arrow-shaped, the style short, with three very small stigmas, and the small, oddly-shaped, little capsule is dark-brown when ripe, and perhaps suggested one of the common names, Nigger-babies. It is called Azulea and Villela by Spanish-Californians.

[Sidenote: =Golden-Eyed Grass=
_Sisyrínchium Califórnicum_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
Cal., Oreg.=]

This is very much like Blue-eyed Grass, but the flowers are bright yellow, the stems are about a foot tall, broadly winged and not branching, and the leaves are somewhat broader. The pretty flowers are nearly an inch across and there are from three to seven in a cluster. The filaments are united at the base only, the style is cleft to below the middle, and the small capsule is rather oblong. This grows in swampy places near the ocean. _S. Arizònicum_ has yellow flowers and branching stems and grows in Arizona. _S. Élmeri_ also has yellow flowers, with purple lines, and is found in wet places in the Sierras. When pressed and dried the yellow-flowered Sisyrinchiums stain the paper reddish-purple.

ORCHID FAMILY. _Orchidaceae._

A very large family, most abundant in the tropics; curious plants, with oddly beautiful flowers. Perhaps because they are also rather rare they seem to have a peculiar fascination for the public; in fact almost any strangely-shaped flower is apt to be dubbed an orchid by the passer-by. They are perennial herbs, with various kinds of roots, some of them parasitic, usually with alternate, toothless leaves, the lower ones sheathing the stem. In some kinds the leaves have dwindled to scales. The flowers are perfect, irregular, with six divisions; the three sepals are alike and colored like petals; two of the three petals are alike, but the central one differs in size and shape and is called the lip. This is conspicuously colored, often spurred, and contains nectar for the attraction of "long-tongued" insects, on which these plants depend mostly for cross-pollination. The mechanism for this purpose is curious and interesting. The stigma is usually a broad sticky surface and its style is united with the filaments and forms, in front of the lip, a column which is usually capped by a single two-celled anther, containing two clusters of pollen, one in each cell. Each cluster consists of a few waxy grains, held together by cobweb-like threads, which run together and terminate in a sticky disk. These disks adhere to the insects, which push in to get the nectar, and are transported to the gummy stigma of another flower. The inferior ovary develops into a three-valved capsule, containing numerous minute seeds. Orchis is the ancient Greek name.

There is only one kind of Cephalanthera in North America; with creeping rootstocks; flowers in terminal spikes, with bracts; sepals and petals nearly equal; petals somewhat united and hooded; lip more or less pouched.

[Sidenote: =Phantom Orchis=
_Cephalanthèra Austínae_
=White
Summer
Northwest=]

In dense mountain forests these strange plants shimmer like pallid ghosts among the dark trees. They are pure translucent white throughout, stem and all, and the leaves have shrunk to white sheaths, an inch or two long. The stems are one to two feet tall and bear spikes of numerous flowers, each over half an inch long, with the lip shorter than the sepals and petals, which are alike. They are beautiful and yet not quite pleasing, for we feel instinctively that there is something unnatural about them and, indeed, the strange absence of any green coloring matter in their make-up indicates that they are incapable of making their own food from the elements and draw their nourishment from decaying vegetation, or are parasitic on other plants. They range northward from Yosemite but are nowhere very abundant. I found several growing near the trail from Little Yosemite Valley to Cloud's Rest and a good many in the woods near the foot of Mt. Shasta, where they seem to be quite common.

There are several kinds of Serapias, widely distributed; tall, stout herbs, with creeping rootstocks and leafy stems; the leaves plaited lengthwise and clasping at base; the flowers with leafy bracts, in terminal racemes. The flowers have no spur; the sepals and petals are separate and nearly equal; the lip broad, free, concave below, constricted near the middle.

[Sidenote: =Stream Orchis Chatter-box=
_Seràpias gigantèa (Epipactis)_
=Reddish and greenish-yellow
Summer
West, etc.=]

A handsome plant, decorative and curious in form and unusual in coloring. It is from one to four feet tall, with a stout, leafy stem bearing three to ten flowers and smoothish leaves, with prominent veins. The sepals are reddish or greenish-yellow and the petals pinkish, veined with maroon. The lip is pouched at the base, with a winged margin and a pendulous tip, which swings freely as if on a hinge, so that it quivers when the plant is shaken. Although the flowers are very handsome this curious tremulous motion, which makes them seem almost alive, gives them a quaint likeness to an old woman in a sunbonnet, with a hooked nose and chattering jaw. They have a slight scent and the plant is quite common along streams and in wet places, in the West and in Colorado and Texas. Some botanists think it is identical with a variety which grows in the Himalaya Mountains. It was named for the Egyptian deity, Serapis.

There are several kinds of Corallorrhiza, widely distributed in the north temperate zone and growing in dense woods; pinkish or straw-colored plants, more or less parasitic, with large roots resembling branches of coral; the leaves all reduced to sheathing, papery scales; the flowers in terminal racemes, without bracts, on short pedicels, which turn down in fruit, mostly with a short spur, the sepals and petals about equal, the upper ones curving in.

[Sidenote: =Coral-root=
_Corallorrhìza multiflòra_
=Reddish-yellow
Summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal., Utah=]

The curious knobby rootstock, shaped like a bit of coral, gives the name to this strange and rather unwholesome looking plant. From living on decayed vegetation it has lost its green leaves, and has only a few papery sheaths in their place, and the thick, translucent stem is pale and smooth, from one to two feet tall, pink at the base, shading to golden-brown towards the top. The flowers, less than half an inch across, are usually yellow, with reddish-brown tips, and the white, three-lobed lip is spotted with purple. The buds are yellow and brown and the whole color effect is very pretty, as if the plant were trying to match the russet tints of the floor of the forest. The flowers vary from several to many and grow in a long cluster, hanging down when their seeds begin to ripen. This is widely distributed, growing also in the East, but nowhere common.

[Sidenote: =Coral-root=
_Corallorrhìza Bigelòwii_
=Reddish-yellow
Summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal., Utah=]

This is a similar plant, but handsomer, with much larger flowers, duller in coloring and striped not spotted. Instead of a spur the base of the sepals is swollen over the ovary, which develops gradually into an oblong fruit to which the flower still clings, so that the older flowers, on the lower part of the stalk, give an odd effect of having long, swollen necks. The seeds are small and numerous. There are other kinds, similar in general effect.

Coral-root--Corallorrhiza multiflora.]

There are numerous kinds of Limnorchis; the lower leaves clasping or sheathing the stem; the flowers mostly in spikes or racemes; sepals nearly equal, petals mostly smaller than the sepals; lip spreading or drooping, not toothed or lobed, with a spur. The Latin name means "marsh-dweller."

[Sidenote: =Sierra Rein Orchis=
_Limnórchis leucostàchys_ (_Habenaria_)
=White
Summer
Cal., Oreg., Wash.=]

Often in some favorable corner of a marsh, near the woods, we may see a dozen of these lovely plants, their robust leafy stalks sometimes as much as four feet tall, rearing their delicate spires of bloom above the lush grass. The long narrow leaves are bright-green and smooth and the numerous, small, delicate blossoms, sprinkled thickly along the stem, are pure white, each with a very long spur like a little tail, each with a green bract at the base of its little pedicel, and deliciously fragrant. There are several similar kinds, mostly with green flowers; this is the handsomest and least rare.

There are many kinds of Cypripedium, with large, broad leaves and one or several, large, drooping flowers, with two fertile anthers, with short filaments, one on each side of the column below the stigma, and a conspicuous, petal-like, sterile anther, arching over the stigma. They are easily known by the curious lip, which is a large inflated sac, suggesting both the common names, Lady's Slipper and Indian Moccasin, and the Greek, meaning "foot of Venus."

[Sidenote: =Mountain Lady's Slipper=
_Cypripèdium montànum_
=Brown and white
Summer
Northwest=]

Beautiful and decorative, with a stout, hairy stem, one to two feet tall and a few handsome flowers, rich and harmonious though not brilliant in coloring, with a lip about an inch long, dull-white, veined with purple, and brownish or purplish sepals and petals, very long, narrow, and twisted. This grows in mountain woods and is found around Yosemite. There is a picture in Miss Parsons's _Wild Flowers of California_. _C. Califórnicum_ is similar, but with more flowers, the sepals and petals greenish-yellow, the lip pinkish. _C. parviflòrum_ has a yellow lip and purplish sepals and grows in northern woods, across the continent. None of these plants is common.

LIZARD-TAIL. _Saururaceae._

A small family; ours are perennial astringent herbs, with alternate, toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks; flowers perfect, with bracts, in a dense, terminal spike, without calyx or corolla; stamens generally three or six; ovary with one to five stigmas; fruit a capsule or berry.

There are two kinds of Anemopsis.

[Sidenote: =Yerba Mansa=
_Anemópsis Califórnica_
=White
Spring
Cal., Ariz.=]

This plant bears several, large, cream-white flowers, which at the first glance appear to have from five to eight petals and a long, projecting knob in the center, but what appears to be a corolla is in reality an involucre, about an inch and a half across, and surrounding the base of a long, conical spike of numerous, small, greenish flowers. These are half-sunk in the fleshy substance of the spike and have no sepals or petals, but each has a small, white bract at its base, so that the spike appears to be covered with scales symmetrically arranged. The flower has from six to eight stamens on the base of the ovary and from three to four stigmas. The ovaries, which are superior, form small pods, opening at the top when ripe, so that in the end the spike is neatly pitted with holes. The rather thick, hollow, reddish stems are from six inches to two feet tall, covered with hair, and the smooth, light-green leaves, from two to ten inches long, are mostly from the root, with leaf-stalks which broaden at the base and partly sheathe the stem. The creeping rootstocks are peppery and acrid, used medicinally, and considered exceedingly valuable by Spanish-Californians. These pretty, odd-looking plants grow in alkaline or salty swamps in the south. The name is from the Greek meaning "anemone" and "appearance," but the flowers do not look very much like Anemones.

SANDALWOOD FAMILY. _Santalaceae._

This is a very small family in this country, for they prefer the tropics, and in those regions some are trees. Ours are usually parasitic on the roots of their neighbors. They have toothless, mostly alternate leaves, mostly without leaf-stalks or stipules, and small flowers, with a four- or five-lobed calyx and no corolla. The four or five stamens are opposite the calyx lobes, at the edge of a fleshy disk, and the ovary is one-celled and inferior, with one style, developing into a one-seeded fruit.

There are four kinds of Comandra, one of them European; smooth, perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and flowers in clusters, without bracts. The calyx is more or less bell-shaped, usually with five lobes, its tube lined with a disk, the stamens inserted at base of the lobes and the anthers attached to the lobes by tufts of hairs.

[Sidenote: =Pale Comandra=
_Comándra pállida_
=Flesh-color, greenish, purplish
Spring, summer
Northwest, Nev., Utah, Ariz.=]

This is a rather pretty plant, growing from a few inches to about a foot tall, branching and rather woody below, with pale-green, smooth, slightly thickish, rather stiff leaves, which are reduced to pinkish scales on the lower stem. The flowers are small, usually flesh-color, thickish in texture, with slender pedicels, and form terminal, rather flat-topped clusters. The fruit, which is about the size of a small pea, is crowned by the remains of the calyx, like a rose-hip. This is common on dry plains and hillsides and is noticeable because of its pale and somewhat peculiar coloring.

BIRTHWORT FAMILY. _Aristolochiaceae_

A rather small family, chiefly of warm countries, but widely distributed; herbs or shrubs; the leaves alternate or from the root, with leaf-stalks, more or less heart-shaped, without stipules; the flowers perfect, mostly large, symmetrical or irregular in form, with or without a corolla; the calyx with three or six lobes, or irregular; the stamens six to many, inserted on the pistil; the ovary wholly or partly inferior; the fruit a mostly six-celled capsule, containing many seeds.

There are several kinds of Asarum.

[Sidenote: =Wild Ginger=
_Ásarum Hartwégi_
=Brown
Spring
Cal., Oreg.=]

The handsome leaves of this perennial are its conspicuous feature. They have long, hairy leaf-stalks and are heart-shaped and toothless, from three to five inches broad, dark rich green, prettily veined and often also beautifully mottled with white, smooth on the upper surface and hairy on the under. We notice them immediately in the damp, dark woods they live in, but unless we look carefully we miss the single, large, strange, purplish-brown flower, the color of dead leaves, which nestles close to the ground as if trying to hide itself. This has twelve stamens, with stout filaments, and six styles, united at the base. There are no petals, but the hairy calyx has three lobes, which are sometimes an inch and a half long, and have long points like tails. The seed-vessel is roundish, crowned by the withered calyx and stamens. The rootstock cannot be used as a substitute for ginger, but smells and tastes very aromatic and pungent. This resembles the Wild Ginger of the East, but is handsomer.

BUCKWHEAT FAMILY. _Polygonaceae._

A large family, widely distributed, mostly herbs or low shrubs, with toothless leaves, often with stipules sheathing the swollen joints of the stem. The small flowers have no petals, the calyx usually resembles a corolla and has from three to six divisions. There are from four to nine stamens and a superior, mostly triangular, ovary, with two or three styles or stigmas, becoming a dry, one-seeded fruit, generally brown or black. The kind from which flour is made is cultivated from northern Asia, and the name Buckwheat, from the German, means "beech-wheat," because the grain resembles minute beech-nuts. There are several common "weeds" belonging to this family, such as Dock, Sorrel, and Smartweed.

Chorizanthes are low herbs, with branching stems, without stipules, the leaves forming a rosette at the base and withering early. The small flowers have six sepals and are clustered in small heads, usually one flower in each papery involucre, which has from two to six teeth, with bristles at the tips; stamens usually nine, on the base of the perianth; styles three, with round-top stigmas.

[Sidenote: =Turkish Rugging=
_Chorizánthe fimbriàta_
=Pink
Spring
California=]

An odd, dry-looking plant, making pretty patches of purplish color on dry mesas. The stiff, roughish, purplish stem is a few inches tall, springing from a few dull-green or reddish root-leaves, branching abruptly and widely towards the top and bearing many small flowers. The involucres are deep-red or purple, with very prickly teeth, the sepals bright-pink, prettily fringed with white and striped with deeper color, and the filaments are long and threadlike, with purple anthers. The flowers are exceedingly pretty when closely examined, though too small to be very effective, but the plant as a whole is conspicuous both in color and form. _C. staticoìdes_ is similar, but the sepals are not fringed.

There are many kinds of Rumex, or Dock, coarse herbs, with leafy, branching, grooved stems, sheathed with conspicuous, papery stipules, strong tap-roots and acid or bitter juice. The large leaves are alternate, with smooth or wavy edges; the flowers small, greenish or reddish, on jointed pedicels, in branching clusters; the stamens six; the styles three, the stigmas shield-shaped, with a tuft of hairs at the tip. The six divisions of the flower are in two sets, the three outer small and green, the inner ones larger, colored and becoming veiny and larger in fruit, forming valves or wings, (often with a grain on the back of one or all of them,) which closely cover the three-sided fruit. These wings make the fruits of Docks more conspicuous than the flower. The Latin name comes from a word meaning "to suck," because the Romans sucked the leaves to allay thirst.

[Sidenote: =Sand Dock=
_Rùmex venòsus_
=Greenish
Spring, summer
West=]

In favorable situations this is a very handsome member of a rather plain genus, about a foot tall, with a smooth, stout reddish stem and smooth, pale, blue-green leaves, that feel like thin rubber, with a prominent mid-vein front and back. The small inconspicuous flowers develop into clusters of showy valves or wings, wonderfully odd and beautiful in coloring, resembling Begonia flowers. At first these wings are pale green, but they gradually brighten until they are all shades of salmon, rose-color, and red, fading to brown, and forming lovely combinations of vivid color, particularly against the arid background of the sand hills they frequent, and they last a long time in water and are exceedingly decorative. If these wings, which are nearly an inch across, are pulled apart, a three-sided akene, like a little nut, will be found inside them.

There are many kinds of Eriogonum, herbs or shrubs, natives of America, mostly western, growing in dry places, very numerous and difficult to distinguish. The leaves, without sheaths or stipules, are often covered with white down and usually grow in a spreading cluster at the base of the stem. The numerous small flowers, on very slender little pedicels, have six sepals, thin in texture and usually colored, and form clusters of various shapes, which emerge from more or less bell-shaped or top-shaped involucres, with six teeth. There are nine stamens, with threadlike filaments, often hairy, and a three-parted style with round-top stigmas. The name is from the Greek meaning "wooly knees," in allusion to the wooly joints of the stem.

[Sidenote: =Bottle-plant=
_Eriógonum inflàtum_
=Yellow
Spring
Southwest=]

This is a most extraordinary looking plant, with queer inflated, hollow stalks, about two feet high, swelling larger towards the top, and the branches, which are also swollen, sticking out awkwardly in all directions and bearing a few minute, yellow flowers. The stalks, which are pale bluish-green, suggest some strange sort of reed, but the dark-green leaves, growing in a rosette at the base, are something like the leaves of cultivated violets and seem entirely out of keeping with the rest of the plant. This grows on the plateau in the Grand Canyon and in similar places.

[Sidenote: =Swollen-stalk=
_Eriógonum elàtum_
=White, pink
Summer
Northwest=]

This is about a foot and a half tall and the stem is swollen, but not so much so as the last, and the flowers are more conspicuous, forming rather flat-topped clusters, about three-quarters of an inch across. The tiny flowers are cream-white or pinkish, the buds are deep-pink, and the stamens are long, with tiny, pinkish anthers. The leaves are dull-green on the upper side and pale with close down on the under and grow in a cluster at the base.

Bottle-plant--Eriogonum inflatum.]

[Sidenote: =Butter Balls, Snow Balls=
_Eriógonum orthocàulon_
=Yellow, white
Spring, summer
Northwest=]

These are attractive plants, with pretty odd little balls of flowers, and are very conspicuous on dry, rocky mesas. They have a number of slender, pale, downy stems, about ten inches tall, springing from a close clump of small, dull-green leaves, pale with down on both sides and the smaller ones almost white, and bearing at the tip a dense flower-cluster, about an inch and a half across, which is very fuzzy and pretty. The little flowers have cream-color, downy involucres, the outer sepals are broader than the inner, and the pedicels, stamens, and pistil are all the same color as the sepals, either very bright sulphur-yellow or cream-white, but not mixed on the same plant, and sometimes tinged with red. These flowers are very popular with children in Idaho and they make necklaces of the fuzzy balls, something like "daisy chains."

[Sidenote: _Eriógonum compósitum_
=White, yellow
Summer
Northwest=]

This is a big handsome plant, with a thick, smooth stem, one or two feet tall and woody at base, and with thickish leaves, slightly downy, dark green in color on the upper side and white with close down on the under. The flowers form feathery, cream-white or yellow clusters, often more than six inches across, with red buds, and are beautiful and conspicuous on bare mountainsides, smelling of honey.

[Sidenote: =Buckwheat Bush, Flat-top=
_Eriógonum fasciculàtum_
=White
Spring, summer
Southwest=]

In favorable situations this is an attractive shrub, from two to four feet high, with shreddy, reddish bark and long, straight branches, standing stiffly up and crowded with small, thickish, stiffish leaves, dark olive-green on the upper side and pale with down on the under, with rolled-back margins. The flowers are about three-eighths of an inch across, dull-white or pinkish, with pink buds, forming large, feathery, flat-topped clusters, on long, stiff, bare, reddish flower-stalks, standing up stiffly all over the bush. This is a very valuable bee-plant and grows on mesas and mountain slopes.

[Sidenote: =Sulphur Flower=
_Eriógonum Bàkeri_
=Yellow,
Summer
Ariz., Utah, New Mex., Col., Wyo.=]

This plant is quite pretty and conspicuous, as the flowers are bright in color and a peculiar shade of sulphur yellow. The stem is downy and often reddish, about a foot tall, with two or three branches at the top, each bearing a cluster of numerous small sweet-scented flowers with pretty stamens. The gray-green leaves grow mostly in a rosette on the ground and are covered with close white down on the under side. Their soft tints tone in well with the bright color of the flowers and the pale sandy soil in which they grow. _E. flàvum_ is similar and widely distributed. _E. incànum_ is the same color but much smaller, often tinged with red, the gray leaves forming a dense velvety mat, and it grows at high altitudes, in sandy spots on rocks, and is found around the Yosemite Valley. The alpine form is very small. There are several other kinds of Sulphur Flower.

Buckwheat Bush--Eriogonum fasciculatum.]

[Sidenote: =Wild Buckwheat=
_Eriógonum racemòsum_
=Pink, white
Summer
Ariz., Utah=]

A pretty desert variety of Wild Buckwheat. The pale downy stem is from one to two feet tall, rather stout, with two or three erect branches at the top, and the leaves are all from the base, gray-green in color and covered with close white down on the under side. The small white and pink flowers are clustered along the branches in small heads, with reddish involucres, forming a spike about three inches long. The whole effect of the plant is curiously pale, but quite pretty. It grows plentifully on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

There are many kinds of Polygonum, East and West, many of them insignificant, some aquatic, some woody at base, with alternate leaves, and sheathing stipules; the sepals four or five; the stamens five to nine; the style with two or three branches and round-top stigmas. The name is from the Greek, meaning "many knees," in allusion to the swollen joints of some kinds.

[Sidenote: =Knot-weed
Alpine Smartweed=
_Polýgonum bistortoìdes_
=White
Summer
West=]

This is about two feet tall, very pretty and rather conspicuous, and the general effect of the smooth stem and sheathing, green leaves is somewhat grasslike. The flowers, which are small and cream-white, with pretty stamens and pinkish bracts, grow in close, roundish, pointed heads, an inch or two long, at the tips of the stalks. The buds are pink and the heads in which the flowers have not yet come out look as if they were made of pink beads. This is an attractive plant, growing among the tall grasses in mountain meadows, and smells deliciously of honey.

PIGWEED FAMILY. _Chenopodiaceae._