IN CALIFORNIA 85 



less noticeable for flowers than for their flat, round 

 pods with accentuated rims, growing in pairs, sug- 

 gesting goggles ; and there are lilliputian eschscholt- 

 zias (E. minutiflora) , in general appearance quite 

 like their robust cousins of the coast but in size di- 

 vided by ten. Of more aspiring proportions and 

 more striking aspect are phacelias in pink and blue ; 

 the fiery trumpets of the beloperone blooming on 

 leafless stalks ; palaf oxias in bundles of dull purple, 

 and golden ox-eyed encelias. Lemon-yellow mentze- 

 lias rising from wan, white stalks and jagged leaf- 

 age, bear distant company with baileyas, pale and 

 ghostly, the latter gowned in long, cottony white 

 hairs, and the flowers a washed-out yellow with 

 lirnp rays. 



As we plodded along, pebbles in our mouths to 

 keep down the thirst and Billy nipping sidewise at 

 occasional bunches of galleta grass, the ruddy- 

 stemmed chaenactis in white and in yellow nodded 

 saucily at our little caravan and sunny faces of 

 malacothrix looked shyly up to ours, while bush- 

 daleas, their spiny limbs covered right royally with 

 pea-blossoms of intensest blue, plucked us now and 

 again by the sleeve. With the waning afternoon, 

 there opened here and there at our feet, in pallid 

 loveliness, the blossoms of an evening primrose 

 (Oenothera trichocalyx) two inches across, pure 



