54 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he would not stand it ; you can't get along without a dog." "I was 

 not cross to the dog ; but, confound him, he would not even let me 

 swear at the sheep ! " 



When spring approaches we are reminded that even here, in the 

 rocky hills and desert-lands of sage-brush, cactus, and alkali-springs, 

 Nature is not sparing of her gifts, and these arid hills and plains 

 show forth many floral beauties. 



Among them is one that claims universal admiration when seen in 

 flower, belonging to the primrose family, said to be named for its dis- 

 coverer, Lewis the explorer, Lewisnia, growing wild in the sand and 

 gravel of the rocky ledges of the foot-hills, mostly on the southern 

 side. The leaves are coarse, radical, and from four to eight inches long. 

 The root stretches several feet, fleshy and red, with two or three side or 

 lateral roots. It may be that this plant is the same as that mentioned 

 in a report to the United States Agricultural Department among the 

 " Food-products of the North American Indians in California," called 

 in the report Lewesia rediviva, and by the Indians " spatulum." The 

 root of this plant is described as large and spindle-shaped, its inner 

 part white and farinaceous; and the report continues: "It abounds 

 in concentrated nutriment, a single ounce of the dried article being 

 sufficient for a meal. It is worthy of cultivation." Perhaps, being 

 cultivated, it might take rank with the potato. It has rare floral 

 beauty ; the buds spring from the crown of the root, the leaves of 

 the plant spreading around flat on the ground ; the buds grow nearly 

 upright, from one to two inches in length. If you watch them about 

 sundown, you can see the buds slowly expand, and soon open into a 

 pure white flower, four- and five-petaled, rose-scented, containing long 

 stamens and pistils covered with pollen. The flower expanding near 

 nightfall, such a pure and delicate white, changes gradually next 

 morning, as the sun comes up, to a light rose-pink, afterward becom- 

 ing a deep pink ; and the old blossom then closes, lies down, and falls 

 off. Although these plants are found in the poorest of dry soil and 

 rocky ledges, where they would seem to get no moisture, or very little, 

 yet a lady friend who successfully transplanted them, says : " We 

 planted them in the garden, bottom-land, along a creek, and there they 

 grew larger and more beautiful, flowering freely until frost. On one 

 plant of two years' growth I counted twenty or more buds." They 

 have many seeds ; seed-pod four-celled, about an inch long, fleshy at 

 base and tapering up. 



The absence of wild fruit or nut-bearing trees and shrubs is a no- 

 ticeable drawback, but perhaps is not at all remarkable, the lands re- 

 quiring irrigation for fruit or produce. 



As far as the writer's observation extends, there is but one good 

 fruit growing here : that is the red raspberry, in the mountains ; 

 large, hardy, and more finely flavored than the choice raspberries in 

 the States. 



