92 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



ing that favorite of California childhood, the dodo- 

 catheon, though no child is pedantic enough to call 

 it so, preferring more sensible names, such as shoot- 

 ing star, wild cyclamen, mosquito bill or mad 

 violet this last, perhaps because the petals are 

 strongly bent backward, like the ears of an animal 

 that is vexed. There are at least two species in 

 California, if not more. As I find the plant on my 

 southern hunting grounds the petals are lilac flushed 

 with pink narrowing to a ring of yellow about the 

 plum purple column of stamens and pistil ; while in 

 Central and Northern California the flowers are 

 much larger and distinctly magenta. Mr. V. K. 

 Chesnut, in a valuable monograph entitled " Plants 

 Used by the Indians of Mendocino County, Cali- 

 fornia," states that the roots and leaves of this 

 pretty wilding used to be roasted in the ashes and 

 eaten by the Indians, and that the squaws adorned 

 themselves with the blossoms at dances. It is 

 a friendly little plant, and one may meet it through- 

 out the length and breadth and height of the State 

 dotting sunny swards from the sea's edge to the 

 glacial meadows of the High Sierra. Forms of it 

 too, are found as far up the coast as Bering Strait, 

 and eastward and southward across the continent 

 to the Atlantic; and even beyond that, for it has 

 been carried to a home in European gardens. 



