82 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



when brightness and warmth returns. She unfolds 

 her buds very gradually, so that a single stalk of 

 Primrose in a glass of water will keep sending out 

 fresh blooms for three weeks. 



This is the only native Primrose we have in Cali- 

 fornia. The botanical name, Primula, is from the 

 Latin primus, meaning "first," referring to its early 

 blooming after the snow's departure. "Suffrute- 

 scens" is also Latin, and indicates that the plant has 

 woody stems at its base. 



Two alpine plants that seek the same altitude as 

 the Primrose, though they prefer more moist loca- 

 tions, are the heathers, the white and the so-called 

 purple. This last evidently was named from a dried 

 specimen, as its blossoms are decidedly not purple. 

 They are a bright magenta when fresh, before fer- 

 tilization. While both heathers belong to the Heath 

 Family that clan of such wondrous beauty as the 

 Snow Plant, the Pyrola, the Rhododendron, the 

 Madrono, the Manzanita they differ in appear- 

 ance from each other. Both are evergreens, both 

 cling close to the warm bosom of Mother Earth, 

 and both grow woody stems so as to conserve food 

 for the plant; but there, as far as the untrained eye 

 is concerned, the resemblance ends. 



The White Heather presses its leaves close to the 

 stem, .in rows of four, and overlaps the lower upon 

 the upper, for all the world as the Cedar does. In 



