FLORA OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



the soil still moist from winter's rain, innumerable 

 annuals cover the plains, first with green, then with 

 a gorgeous array of floral colors and extend up the 

 slopes until lost amid the shrubs of the foothill belt. 

 This is the scene over which poets thrill and botan- 

 ists despair. For this is the home of the California 

 poppy (of which some claim that there are more 

 than a hundred species), and of the cream-cups, 

 and Phacelias, and Godetias, and Baerias, and tidy- 

 tips, and a thousand other beautiful but, to the bot- 

 anist, perplexing groups of closely related species. 



Suburban railways from almost any city, from 

 San Die.ero to Seattle, will carry one into these flow- 

 ery gardens, but it is in southern California and 

 along the borders of the Great Central Valley that 

 the greatest profusion of flowers is to be seen. One 

 reason for this is the absence of sod-forming grasses, 

 the annuals thus being permitted to occupy the 

 whole area whenever moisture and temperature con- 

 ditions are favorable. 



If the visiting botanist selects the plains or foot- 

 hill slopes of southern California for his excursion 

 he will be impressed with the preponderance of 

 Composites, indicating perhaps, the close relation 

 with the Mexican flora. Baeria chrysostoma grows 

 in such abundance that it is known as gold-fields. 

 B. coronaria is equally plentiful in some parts of 

 San Diego County and both species furnish excellent 

 material for the study of variation as related to en- 

 vironment. Layia, Coreopsis, Chaenactis, and (at 

 San Diego) Pentachoeta are other abundant Com- 

 posite genera. Because of the large and showy cup- 

 shaped flowers, the various species of Calochortus 

 (mariposa lily), a characteristic western genus, are 

 easily found, especially along the foothills. Another 

 liliaceous group, the Brodiaeas, which grow from 

 edible corms and bear umbels of usually bluish 

 flowers, inhabit clay soils. The rare Matilija poppy, 

 well known for its magnificent white flowers, is 

 best seen in the Ojai Vallev, Ventura County, and 

 in Santiago Canon, Orange County, but it also occurs 

 in masses in Temescal Wash, southeast of Corona, 

 and in San Diego County. 



Many of the genera just mentioned may also be 

 found on the coastal slope of middle California, but 

 here there is a larger Dronortion of grasses and of 

 perennials, consequently the foliage is more luxu- 

 riant, and the flowers are less conspicuous. During 

 the spring and summer months, Baerias, Layias and 

 other Composites still dominate certain slopes, such 

 as those around Lake Merced, just south of San 

 Francisco. On down the San Francisco Peninsula 



149 



