CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



enough to eat the petals of the flowers as well as the pollen. 

 But the guests must carry much pollen for the poppies. It 

 is generally believed that, although their own pollen may 

 fall on their stigmas, they do not mature seed unless pollen 

 is brought from other flowers. 



The cream-cups are cousins of the poppies, and have 

 the same habit of dropping their cap of sepals as the petals 

 unfold. This habit will help us to recognize other members 

 of the poppy family, including the cultivated poppies. You 

 may find the tree poppy with large, pale yellow flowers, or 

 a pretty, little, bright red poppy whose petals fall off at a 

 touch, or in the shady nooks of the canons, a very delicate, 

 little, star-like, white poppy. In sandy washes, later in the 

 season, the prickly poppy will send out great white flowers 

 with crumpled petals and a great many yellow stamens. In 

 some canons in Southern California, there is found, in May, 

 a great, white poppy five or six inches in diameter, the 

 plant being sometimes seven feet high. This giant poppy 

 is called Coulter's poppy, or the Matilija poppy; it is being 

 introduced into our gardens. 



And the mustard! No amount of cultivation seems 

 likely to drive out this common weed. In Southern Cali- 

 fornia it forms thickets so high that men on horseback can 

 be quite hidden in it. It is true here, as in Palestine, that 

 it grows with marvelous rapidity from the least of seeds, 

 and that the birds lodge in the branches. It matures during 

 the rainy season; in summer time there remain only the 

 dead, gray stalks, from which the birds gather seeds. It is 

 impossible to explain fully why the mustard can grow so 

 rapidly and become strong enough to drive out other plants 

 that we take great care to preserve; but some of its advan- 

 tages are easily seen. It has rough leaves, with a biting 

 taste that most animals must dislike, and it has a great 

 abundance of flowers, in clusters that last a long time. It 

 provides honey, and is visited by bees that efiect both close 



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