THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 7 



growth and flowering. In most parts of California this order 

 is largely reversed. Winter is with us the growing period ; 

 summer is the resting period. Autumn is the time when the 

 young green shoots appear; spring is the time of maturing 

 fruits. That most eastern wildflowers find it hard to adjust 

 themselves to this inverted seasonal order is painfully evident 

 to anyone who has tried to grow them in California. They 

 may be kept alive for a season or two, perhaps longer in certain 

 instances, but as for adjusting themselves to our inverted 

 California program, I have never known any able to do that. 

 Certain weeds seem to get along fairly well indeed, the winter- 

 growing program they apparently find quite to their liking. 



We also have a number of native plants identical with 

 species found in the East, but these for the most part grow 

 in localities where conditions closely approximate eastern 

 conditions and the inverted California order does not apply. 

 I knew of one plant, however, which apparently has adjusted 

 itself quite perfectly to California conditions. The fragile 

 fern (Cystoptcris fragilis) is not uncommon with us and is 

 found in localities which become quite arid in summer. Dur- 

 ing the dry weather its fronds crumble to powder, but the root 

 stock remains alive and puts forth fresh fronds at the first 

 autumnal rain. Its cycle of annual growth is almost exactly 

 reversed from what it is in the Eastern states. In the East 

 it begins its annual growth in April or May; with us in Sep- 

 tember or October. In the East it matures in September or 

 October, with us in April or May. Does any reader of The 

 Botanist know of any other plant in which this inversion of the 

 seasonal program is so completely inverted? 



