54 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



unforested portions of the Coast Range, were cov- 

 ered hill and plain for hundreds of miles with an 

 almost uninterrupted self-sown growth of wild oats, 

 making a carpet as complete as the grassy covering 

 of an Illinois prairie. Travelers of those early 

 days speak of the remarkable tallness of this grass 

 which they could bend and tie across the horses' 

 backs, and in swales the growth was so rank that 

 riders on horseback could not see one another ten 

 feet away. To-day it grows in soberer fashion, a 

 stalk of three feet being esteemed a high one. Al- 

 though in one sense a weed, it is a valuable grass, 

 affording a nutritious wild pasture appearing with 

 the first rains of winter; and also makes good hay 

 at least in the estimation of Californians. East- 

 ward it is more or less in disfavor. To the plant 

 collector whose interests are more purely esthetic, 

 the loose, trembling panicles of the blooming plant 

 are extremely ornamental. A patch of wild oats 

 at that stage of growth with orange-yellow poppies 

 glowing here and there in the midst, makes a charm- 

 ing bit in Nature's wild garden, which may well be 

 imitated by the arranger of cut-flowers within doors. 

 "The Pacific Coast," remarked the Professor one 

 day with a twinkle in his eye, "is a land of para- 

 doxes the squirrels live in the ground; the rats 



