108 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



the people. It sounds suspiciously like a book- 

 name made up out of a Spanish dictionary. 



Close of kin to the Eschscholtzias are several 

 other California genera of poppies, one of which, 

 Platystemon Californicus, greets the flower-hunter 

 in early spring throughout the State, lending a 

 touch of soft color, sometimes acres in extent, to 

 plain and mesa. The petals are of the hue of rich 

 cream and the flower is happily described by its 

 popular California name cream cups. In Eng- 

 land where it is cultivated in gardens it is, I believe, 

 sometimes called Calif ornian poppy. The yellow 

 tree-poppy (Dendromecon rigidum) is remarkable 

 as being a shrubby member of the family, a large 

 bush often taller than a man, with willow-like foli- 

 age amid which the bright yellow blooms gleam 

 like gold double-eagles, spring and summer. Then 

 there are those great, glorious white poppies with a 

 multitude of yellow stamens at their hearts, the 

 chicalote (Argemone platyceras), and the Matilija 5 

 poppy (Romneya Coulteri). The former is a 

 thistle-like plant of the semi-arid plains and sandy 

 washes of the south, and while its regal blossoms 

 are as striking as those of the Eomneya, the plant 



G Pronounced matil'ihah, the name of a canon where it is abundant 

 in the Santa Yne"s Mountains. The plant's specific name preserves 

 the memory of its first collector, Dr. Thomas Coulter, the botanical 

 discoverer of the Colorado Desert region of southeastern California. 



