BOTANY. 107 



sides are frequently covered with them, and their red, blue, or 

 yellow petals hide every thing else. Each month has its flow- 

 ers : in March the grass of a valley may be hidden under red, 

 in April under blue, and in May under yellow blossoms. There 

 is such a variety that within an hour I have counted twenty 

 species on a spot not more than twenty feet square. This was 

 on dry, sandy soil, in Sonoma valley, in the month of May. 

 None of the flowers are large, brilliant in color, or rich in 

 sweet, strong perfume. 



The tule is a reed which covers all the large tracts of swamp 

 lands in the state. It has no leaf, but a plain, round stalk, va- 

 rying from half an inch to an inch and a half at the butt, and 

 tapering gradually to a point. It is usually not more than 

 eight or ten feet high, but at the Tulare Lake it grows to 

 fifteen or twenty feet. 



The grass and herbage begin to grow and clothe the land- 

 scape in green after the first heavy rains of the rainy season. 

 These rains may come in December, January, or February; 

 and until they do come, the earth, in the districts not covered, 

 with timber, is brown. The grass continues green until June, 

 when it begins to dry up and turn yellow and brown, which 

 colors then predominate in the landscape until the rains come 

 again. The death of the grass, except at high elevations, is 

 caused not by the cold but by the drought ; and in those months 

 when the prairies of Indiana and Illinois are covered with 

 snow, the valleys of California are dressed in the brilHant 

 green of young grass. 



The mistletoe grows abundantly on the oak-trees of Califor- 

 nia. The Spanish moss, which hangs in long lace-like gray 

 beards from the branches, also serves to give beauty to the 

 groves in the valleys. 



Note. — Most of mj information about the botany of the state has been 

 derived from the reports of Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the United States Pacific 

 Railroad Survey, and from the conversation of Dr. A,. Kellogg, Dr. IL Behr, 

 and Mr. H. G. Bloomer, of San Francisco. 



