SOME FANTASTIC FLOWERS 53 



so as to secure seed, and she makes them as fine 

 as she can. Some persons never pick their cultivated 

 flowers, thinking they prefer them on the plant; 

 but this simply shortens the period in which they can 

 enjoy the blooms. The more you pick, the harder 

 the plant will work to carry out its own object. 



Castilleja is not at all poverty-stricken in tints 

 and shades of pigment. When Nature dips into her 

 paint box to dress her floral children, she uses red 

 less frequently than any other color; but she loses 

 her restraint when she comes to California. She 

 has given us a greater percentage of red blossoms 

 than she has bestowed upon any other land. She 

 seems to have given Castilleja free play with the 

 primary colors, only bidding her to keep as much 

 a? possible to the colors of Spain. And well has 

 Castilleja done her part. Along the Coast, she 

 blooms out in every combination of red and yellow 

 imaginable cardinal, scarlet, yellow orange, burnt 

 orange with all their shades and tints. In the 

 Si % erras, she not only wears all these hues, but she 

 adds a dip of blue in the mixing and comes out in 

 crimson, carnelian, magenta, vermillion lovelier 

 shades than ever Paris milliner invented. At about 

 6,500 feet above sea level, Castilleja will cover 

 mountain slopes with such beauty that one can sim- 

 ply stand open-mouthed in admiration. And each 

 plant pushes upward with such energy that they 



