64 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



country in the world, should have become natural- 

 ized in the warmer parts of California, is not sur- 

 prising, and it occurs not infrequently as extensive 

 thickets in the open, seeding itself and attaining the 

 dimensions of a small tree. From its abundance 

 about old Spanish settlements and the vicinity of 

 the Missions, it probably was first planted by the 

 Padres, both for the sake of the oil bearing seeds, 

 whose properties are well known the world over, 

 and for the regal beauty of the plant itself. The 

 large five-fingered leaves are a marked feature to 

 which it owes its popular Old World name palma 

 Christi, the hand of Christ. Such sacred associa- 

 tion might well have helped to commend it for in- 

 clusion in the Mission gardens. Mexicans call it 

 'higuerilla, little fig tree, perhaps from some resem- 

 blance of leaf. Companioning the Castor-oil plant 

 frequently is another arboreal weed, which is 

 thought by many to have had its start in California 

 as an ornamental shrub in gardens that is, Nico- 

 tiana glauca. It often makes considerable thickets 

 too, and I have seen it in congenial surroundings as 

 tall as twenty-five feet, with a trunk three to four 

 inches in diameter at the base. 



Its blue-green leaves and tubular yellow flowers, 

 in bloom most of the year, are its recommendations 

 for a place among ornamentals, but the present-day 



