128 THE PLANT WORLD 



A MARCH DAY'S FLOWERS. 



By Chaeles Elmer Jenney. 



46 A PRIL showers bring May flowers," is an old New England 

 J-^ adage. Nothing is said about any earlier flowers in that lati- 

 tude. Therefore the list of blossoms that a single March day 

 in California revealed should be somewhat of a wonder to those bot- 

 anists who are enjoying March gales sans flowers. 



On March 24, 1901, all of the plants hereafter enumerated were 

 in flower near Fresno, California, on the San Joaquin river, and within 

 a space of probably less than two square miles. Such a variety in such 

 a limited space is quite remarkable. 



Of course the list should be headed with the California poppy, 

 EsckschoUzia Californica, whose red-gold blazoned wide stretches of 

 land once sowed to wheat, and even crept up the lines of new wheat 

 in thick masses. The less showy poppy, E. caespifosa, was also com- 

 mon. Mixed thickly among the poppies were the gaudy fiddle-heads, 

 Amsinckia spectabilis and the less brilliant A. lycopsoides. The delicate 

 bird's eyes, ( Gilia tricolor) and a pure white species of Gilia, the tender 

 blue-eyes (NemopJiila Menziesii), and its relative Phacelia Douglasii, and 

 the fragrant forget-me-not {Mijosotis verna), whose little white flowers 

 looking like pop-corn scented all the air. The sunshines {Baeria grac- 

 ilis), shone like little suns among the low herbage. 



Along the bluffs of the river the beautiful tidy-tips {Laya platy- 

 glossa), grew in scarce clusters; mingled with them their less favored 

 composite friend the false tidy-tips {Leptosyue Douglasii). There were 

 also numbers of a large composite flower like a small sunflower, but dif- 

 ficult of determination. On the dry plains the plumes of the paint- 

 brush {Orthocarpus piirpura^cens), gaily waved, and smaller members 

 of the genus, 0. micrantlius and the yellow 0. eriantJms were found. 

 Hugging close to the earth into which their long, slender roots extended 

 to a remarkable length, were the sun-cups {Oenothera ovata), while 

 0. historfa, with its reddish, wriggled stem was present all over the 

 plains. The shrubby lupine {Lupinus Douglasii), and the minute one 

 (Z/. mic7'anthus), were common, as also the white and a similar blue 

 species, all besieged by many bees. Among the high grass and bushes 

 of the river bank twined the wild cucumber (Echinocystis fabacea). A 

 small clover and the stately larkspur {Delphinium Menziesii), grew in 

 the desolate hog-wallow wastes. On the hill-side the bright western 

 wall-flower {Erysimum asperum) grew. The wild blackberry {Rubus 

 ursinus), whitened the bramble patches by the river. The tree tobacco 

 {Nicotiana glauca), with its long j^ellow tubes hung over the river. The 

 two species of alfilaria {Erodium. cicutarium and E. hofrys), the cream- 



