FLOWERS OF "TIP-TOP" BOTTOM. 277 



Out here in the Sweet-Water Valley the scattered plan- 

 tations are set with lemon or orange groves and these, then, 

 lined with dense, tall firs, here and there cut into box-hedges, 

 to keep out the winds of the sea, which often cause the trees 

 to scale. Lemons are more popular than oranges here, and 

 the ground between the trees is sown with sweet-peas, that 

 fill the air with fragrance — a fragrance made the more 

 piquant by the added whiff from the fir hedge. Some few 

 years ago the Sweet-Water River went ciry, anci so irriga- 

 tion, by means of runs resembling the return-chutes of a 

 bowling alley, was employed. The remains of these runs 

 still sur\'ive in the orchards. 



Again and again, too, more of the tall eucalyptus trees 

 rise, coming right up, even when cut low, the leaf stem is a 

 gaudy, bright yellow, and contrasts well with the darker 

 lace-like pepper-trees. Here and there a place has palms 

 to hecige its lemon-groves, and then one is at Nestor. From 

 here on, the roaci grows more lonesome and the real country 

 flora begins. Dry, fairly green brush covers the hill ranges 

 along the frontier, and in the grass at the road there are in- 

 numerable yellow daisies with leaves like that of the 

 camomile, small blue Hower, and shrubs of various sorts. 

 Then, where the mountains trend in, there is sumach and a 

 low sage brush, while cypresses rise above. 



Among the gnarled stocks of a little vineyard yellow 

 California poppies thrive, otherwise brush covers everything 

 except in the sunnier fields where the wild tobacco and the 

 wild cucumber grow over all. The ice-plants, too, are numer- 

 ous — their fieshy leaves covered with sweat-like drops as of 

 an ice pitcher in hot humid weather. Now and then, the 

 white cyclamen, too, joins in the medley. Tangles of dry, 

 wiry weed, and of prickly pear are here, and there is a beau- 

 tiful tiny blue ffower of five petals and center of white, ris- 

 ing from moss in the grass. 



At almost the last house this side of the border, ivy 

 grows up the porch, and the flat meadows to the sea are filled 



