CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



rf v 



The everlasting plants, the hoarhound, and the sage brushes 

 are good examples of this. The hairs are empty, or rather 

 they contain simply air, so they keep in moisture just as a 

 layer of straw keeps soil moist, or as a stopper of cotton in 

 a bottle keeps water from 

 evaporating. Besides, the in- 

 terlacing hairs actually keep 

 the leaf cells cooler by shad- 

 ing them from the sun. At 

 the end of this chapter are 

 some of these screening plant 

 hairs as they look under the 

 microscope. One of the most 

 hairy of California autumn 

 plants is the one in Fig. 14 ; 

 children sometimes call it 

 turkey- weed. In some parts 

 of the state it covers acres of 

 hard, sun-baked soil, but it is 

 so nearly the color of the dusty 

 earth that it is easily over- 

 looked. It is sticky, prickly 

 and ill- seen ted, and you may 

 think it a very ugly little 

 weed. Indeed, with so many 

 dangers to combat, plants 

 cannot always afford to be 

 pretty, they must be content 

 with being clever. But really 

 this turkey-weed is not with- 

 out beauty. No. 4 at the end 

 of the chapter is a drawing of 

 the hairs under the micro- 

 scope. You see that they 

 are little stars, each having 



Fig. 13. A SUMMER COMPOSITE- 

 iMalacotbrix tenuifolia. 



46 



