CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



CHAPTER IX. 



SOflE SPRING FLOWERS. 



Our California poppy is known and admired the world 

 over; but under cultivation it grows pale, and it is only 

 here, in its native home, that it can be seen in all its 

 splendor. We have turned thousands of acres of poppies 

 into grain fields, orchards or city lots, but we still have left 

 in our foothills and upland valleys, glowing poppy fields 

 that are a marvel to strangers and a never-ending delight 

 to ourselves. The Spanish people named this flower "cup 

 of gold;" but the botanists called it Eschscholtzia. 



And why is our poppy so successful ? We cannot hope 

 to learn all of its secrets, but some of its ways are easy to 

 understand. It has an underground part that will last for 

 years; besides, it will come up quickly from the seed. The 

 leaves are just the sort to make the most of a .short rainy 

 season, and the flowers take the best of care of their golden 

 pollen; they open late and close early on fair days, and not 

 at all in rough weather. Look into an open flower, and see 

 how the petals hoard the pollen as it falls from the anthers. 

 It offers no honey to guests, but the pollen is free to all who 

 call on sunny days between 10 and 3 o'clock. The poppy 

 takes lodgers, too, and several kinds of insects choose 

 to sleep in this golden palace. So the poppy receives a fair 

 share of insect attention, but not so much from bees as 

 from flies and beetles. Some of the beetles are boorish 



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