IN CALIFORNIA 63 



or not. With it and even more persistent as an in- 

 truder in gardens is the scarlet pimpernel whose 

 salmon-red starry blossoms with a dark eye are so 

 pretty that tender-hearted gardeners generally 

 leave a few where they will do least harm. It is a 

 famous Old World plant this scarlet pimpernel 

 which, because of its habit of closing its flowers 

 when clouds gather and upon the approach of even- 

 ing, is called by English country folk by a number 

 of names appropriate to the fact, such as Poor 

 Man's Weather-glass, Shepherd's Warning, Shep- 

 herd's Clock, Wink-a-peep, and so on. Then there is 

 a quaint little grass that has drifted uninvited into 

 our gardens and waste places from across the sea, 

 Lamarkia aurea, whose one-sided panicles of sil- 

 very-gray bloom tinged with pink or yellow, make 

 it an object of pleasurable interest. It is another of 

 the Mediterranean fellowship, and its appearance in 

 Southern California, where it is most abundant, 

 dates from 1875, when, according to Mr. Parish, the 

 botanists Parry and Lemmon discovered it growing 

 in a canon back of Eedlands. It has now won popu- 

 lar favor to a degree that has gained for it a com- 

 mon name golden-top. 



That so confirmed a globe trotter as the Castor- 

 oil plant (Ricinus communis), which originating in 

 India has now established itself in every tropical 



