IN CALIFORNIA 221 



seem to lie in appreciation of the day of small things 

 and the exercise of a rigid economy. In a dry land 

 where months ago the lush vegetation of the spring 

 withered and gave up the ghost, these gleaners of 

 the later year find still some moisture, and of that 

 little they waste no tittle. As the watery income 

 through the roots is small, every jot must be turned 

 to account, and all unnecessary leakage stopped. 

 That is common sense and good business the prin- 

 ciple of reducing expenses when receipts are small 

 and what enables the tarweed to do this when most 

 other plants cannot, is the coating of hair and gum- 

 miness that excite our selfish ire as we tramp ruth- 

 lessly through its preserves. This covering reduces 

 to a minimum the evaporation of the pittance of 

 water which the plants manage to suck in, holding 

 it inside until it can be utilized in the manufacture 

 within leaf and stem of the elements needed for life. 

 I confess to a great admiration for that tarweed 

 way of doing, like the thrift and integrity of the 

 self-respecting human poor. Not all plants are of 

 so industrious a habit of life. Some are downright 

 pilferers, sinking their roots into other plants ' anat- 

 omy and extracting their juices, as a pick-pocket 

 relieves a man in the street of his week's wages ; and 

 others, like the "tomato-can hobos" of city gutters, 

 live on the decaying refuse of the woods a useful, 



