IN CALIFORNIA 61 



nardino, about 1885. "The mottled foliage of the 

 unknown waif," he states, ''found favor in the eyes 

 of the owner of the adjoining land, who carefully 

 protected it from accidental destruction, to see what 

 it would come to. It came in a few years to occupy 

 almost all the road, and its early protector has paid 

 for his mistaken charity, by assiduous and only par- 

 tially successful effort to eradicate it." 



Still another Old "Worldling against which the 

 Californians would like to enforce the exclusion act, 

 is a tall umbellifer with finely dissected, threadlike 

 leaves, and flat-topped masses of yellow flowers, the 

 whole plant abounding in the fragrance of licorice. 

 By one of the perversions which attends so many 

 popular names, it is generally called sweet anise. 

 It is really fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), cultivated 

 in Europe from very early times the fennel with 

 which victors were crowned at ancient games; the 

 fennel of Shakespeare and of Longfellow: 



"Above the lowly plant it towers, 

 The fennel, with its yellow flowers; 

 And in an earlier age than ours 

 "Was gifted with the wondrous powers 

 Lost vision to restore. 



It gave new strength and fearless mood, 

 And gladiators, fierce and rude, 

 Mingled it in their daily food, 



