or three feet high. The flowers 

 are very handsome and showy, 

 but it is really one of the most 

 unamiable of the Gilias; if you have 

 ever tried to pluck it, you know 

 how savage the leaves are ; and the 

 great, lovely, pink flowers seem to 

 provide no honey at all ; besides 

 this, they keep their pollen away 

 down in the narrow corolla tube, 

 apparently only for their own use, 

 for it falls directly on the stigmas. 

 I have never seen this inhospitable 

 flower visited, and its attractive 

 corolla seems to be of no use to 

 the plant. 



The botanical name for baby- 

 blue-eyes is Nemophila. There are 

 several kinds quite common in the 

 state. In Southern California the 

 one most common in the canons 

 has very delicate blue flowers, while 

 the kind that grows in open places 

 has larger, deep blue flowers. But 

 the most clever Nemophila is the 

 one in the picture, Fig. 44 ; it is 

 common in very shady places ; it 

 has not blue flowers at all, but 

 large, dull violet ones. It is rarely 

 gathered, because the stems are so 

 weak that they break in the hand- 

 ling, and the whole plant is very 

 prickly. A bit of its epidermis 

 under the microscope is shown 

 in the picture ; the prickles, or 



117 



Fig. 44. 

 CLIMBING 



Nemopbila aurita. 



