1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



309 



chance to seed, and of these last especially, a 

 modem poet discourseth thus : — 



" ' Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air,' 



But where a British botanist has been, 

 In his collections you must seek it there. 



"Were it the sweetest plant that ever bloomed, 

 If it were rare, and he found out the spot, 



He'd make it rarer — nay, it would be doomed ; 

 His spud would soon eradicate the lot." 



<2i? 



Literature, ^j1|Ravels & Personal ^otes. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



AN APRIL DAY IN THE FOOT-HILLS OF 

 CALIFORNIA. 



BY MRS. FANNIE E. BRIOGS. 



We set out one bright day for a little excur- 

 sion in the " hills." For the first mile, our way 

 lay across a fertile plain, green with waving 

 grain and grass, and gay with flowers. Here, 

 the Poppies (Ei^choltzias) made ground-sun- 

 shine; there, the Nemophilas had taken posses- 

 sion, and it looked as if the sky had fallen on 

 the fertile acres. Such of these valleys as can- 

 not be irrigated, are sown with a mixture of 

 wheat and oats, in the Fall, which is nourished 

 by the Winter rains, and cut before entirely ripe, 

 for hay. Everything has a flavor of novelty. 

 We have to " turn out " for a mule-team, but 

 its ten mules have each an iron frame above the 

 shoulders, with five bells suspended from it, 

 w^hich tinkle merrily, and the driver rides one 

 of them, and manages the brakes to the two 

 huge wagons with a strap. This use of bells is 

 a relic of Spanish customs. 



When we leave the plain, the waj' sometimes 

 crosses the dry rocky beds of what were roaring 

 torrents in the rainy season; sometimes crosses 

 little patches of fine mountain gra.ss, emerald 

 green, and enameled with tiny flowers, and 

 anon climbing steep, rocky hills, on whose 

 rugged sides only hardy pines and ferns can 

 find foot-hold. 



Far up the hills, waving above the rugged 

 rocks, I saw a new flower with the general 

 aspect of a Cypripedium. Of course I soon had 

 it in my possession, but it proved to be a T-.ilip. 

 The stem was slender, branching and leafy; the 

 three sepals, small and spreading; the three 

 petals an inch long, delicate, pearly-white, revo- 

 lute, and curiously over-lapping each other in a 



way that entirely hid the interior, which is 

 fringed, and tinted like some ocean shell. 



Well, this discovery was glory enough for one 

 day, but on we went, and soon reached our 

 destination. "Beautiful for situation," a fertile 

 valley far up among the highest range of hills, 

 sheltered on the north-west by a rocky ridge, 

 and commanding a broad view of lower ranges 

 of hills and their intervening vales. 



It humbles, yet exalts the soul to survey such 

 scenes ; to feel its own littleness among these 

 stupendous works of the Creator, yet to feel that 

 our Father made them all, and gave them to us 

 richly to enjoy. 



We gathered flowers and ferns for memorials, 

 took a long look at the broad prospect, and the 

 far-oflf mountains, and slowly descended, to 

 drive home in the warm sunshine, laden with 

 Passion Flowers and Roses. 



I notice a query about " Tumble-weed " in 

 the magazine. Every one who has lived in the 

 West knows "Tumble-weed." I examined it 

 when I first came to Iowa, and think it is a 

 Chenopod, but am not sure, for it is many years 

 ago. The plant grows strong, and branches all 

 the way from the ground, forming a dense 

 globular mass. In the Fall it gets dry, and the 

 wind breaks off" the stem close to the ground, 

 and then it rolls over and over, till something 

 stops its course. I have seen dozens of them 

 "tumbling " across a field at a time, and some- 

 times they pile up by the fences to such a 

 height, that belated specimens go "tumbling" 

 over to the other side. 



NOTES FROM DALLAS, TEXAS. 



BY AMMON BURR. 



As many people from the States are looking 

 to Texas for a new home, and as all horticulturists 

 naturally feel an interest in what is doing 

 abroad, I drop you these rough notes. 



