28 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



surprising in the abundance of its plant life in flower. These 

 autumnal bloomers are not the struggling starv^elings that one 

 might naturally expect a drought-baked soil to produce, but 

 cheerful warriors of the sun, sturdy and full of vim, brought 

 up — the perennials at least^ — to hunt deep and far for water — 

 not supine waiters for it to be poured upon them. As a 

 matter of fact, however, after a normal winter rainfall, the 

 subsoil loses its moisture quite slowly. In digging some post- 

 holes, as I have been doing recently, I have had to break the 

 hard, dry surface ground with a mattock ; but at twelve to 

 eighteen inches down the earth becomes appreciably damp, 

 while at two feet it is mellow enough to be easily tilled. So 

 the thirsty roots have less distance to delve than one might 

 imagine. 



This robust autumn flora does not as a rule excite the 

 admiration that the delicate beauty of the spring flowers 

 awakens ; nevertheless I find it of exceeding interest. From 

 the veranda where I write. I see stretches of unbroken land 

 denselv covered with the tall, wand-like, leafv stems of Hcter- 

 otheca grandiflora, one of the commonest of autumn flowers 

 here and near cousin to the golden aster of the East. Topped 

 with panicles of bright yellow blossoms, patches of it present 

 at a distance somewhat the effect of goldenrod. The latter is 

 here somewhat of a rara avis, but we occasionally come upon 

 one species (Solidago Californica) — truly a rod of gold, the 

 flowers being borne in long, slender spikes. 



Very abundant at this season is a tall, snaky looking com- 

 posite, with slender, leafless branches darting this way and 

 that, bearing of mornings small, bluish white stars of bloom 

 like depauperate chicory flowers. Indeed vmtil I examined it 

 critically one day, I took it for granted that it was some 

 species of Cichorhim; but it is generally different, being the 

 closely related Stcphanomeria virgafa. The flowers close at 

 middav, and in the afternoon the branches become more or 



