IN CALIFORNIA 107 



classify the eschscholtzia under several species, 

 based on characters of more serious import to the 

 man of science than to the general public, to whom 

 the various species all look pretty much alike. The 

 genus, though growing wild almost wholly within 

 the limits of California, is also found sparingly 

 northward in Oregon and Washington, and strays 

 southward into upper Mexico and across the Sierra 

 Nevada into the Great Basin. The Spanish-Cali- 

 fornians reckon it among remedial plants, and as a 

 pain-killer and a soporific it has had more or less 

 vogue in family medicine, as might be expected of 

 it for it is a true poppy, a member of the same 

 drowsy family with the immemorial flower of sleep 

 and the Shirleys of our garden. Our Spanish peo- 

 ple have several names for it, as torosa and toronja 

 the latter a curious case of transference, appar- 

 ently, for the word properly means the grape-fruit ; 

 but prettier than either of these is the name it 

 shares with the garden poppies, dormidera, the 

 sleepy one, because of its habit of closing its petals 

 at the approach of evening, as though dropping off 

 to sleep. American writers of a sentimental cast 

 have taken kindly to copa de oro, cup of gold, which 

 is given in books as one of its Spanish names, but 

 I must confess I have not found it in use among 



