IN CALIFORNIA 95 



by a stage driver in the Trinity Mountains. The 

 flowers had long interested this unbotanical moun- 

 taineer, and he had gratified the sentiment of his 

 heart by naming it Ida May, after his little daugh- 

 ter, with whom it was a favorite. Wood realized 

 that the plant was new to science, and believing it 

 also a new genus, described it under the name 

 Brevoortia Ida-maid, the specific terminology com- 

 memorating not only the parental affection of the 

 stage driver but also the fact that the plant had 

 been collected on the "ides (15th) of May!" Un- 

 fortunately, Wood's naming was overruled by his 

 confreres in science, who subsequently transferred 

 the flower to the genus Brodiaea, and while about it, 

 cleared the record of all touch of sentiment by sub- 

 stituting for Ida-maia the prosy coccinea. 



In a dry wash of my southern mesa I am like to 

 find early in February, the first starry blooms of 

 the little fringed gilia (G. dianthoides) , bespang- 

 ling the gravelly ground. The dainty satiny corol- 

 las with their yellow eyes are of so rare a loveliness 

 that it would be a hard heart indeed that could re- 

 sist the appeal of their quiet beauty. This blossom 

 has always seemed to me to play on the Pacific Coast 

 the part in Flora's spring pageant, which on the 

 Atlantic side of the continent, is taken by that mod- 

 est Houstonia which is called innocence by some and 



