220 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



on mountain heights, in dry; arroyos and on what 

 Dr. Gray pleasantly termed "desiccated plains." 

 Of Madia there are about a dozen species and varie- 

 ties, some of which slip over the California border 

 into near-by States northward and eastward. 



While the great abundance of these sticky plants 

 makes them at times- a great nuisance to ranchers 

 and to pedestrians with a regard for neatness of at- 

 tire, they possess more than a passing interest to the 

 contemplative mind. In California the warm, dry 

 months of midsummer and early autumn, when their 

 flowers appear, are a season of rest for most wild 

 plants, just as winter is a time of plant dormancy in 

 colder climates. The rains have long since ceased; 

 the ground is baked on the surface, and dry ap- 

 parently as bone for a foot down ; the degrees of the 

 air's relative humidity are fewer at times than your 

 fingers ; and except where cultivation and irrigation 

 keep up a mantle of green, the general tone of the 

 landscape is dun and sere as in the eastern Novem- 

 ber. Then it is after months of drought and not 

 till then that these tarweeds and a few boon com- 

 rades of other sorts, begin to warm up to life, to 

 spread their petals to the sun and invite the bees. 

 One wonders where in the midst of almost desert 

 conditions they get the wherewithal to make their 

 brave showing. The secret of this success would 



