CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



used up all the seed food, it must fall to the earth, for it 

 cannot feed itself. But this little, yellow, vagabond baby 

 can do without food for several weeks, and it lies on the 

 ground and waits for some green shoot to grow against it; 

 it seizes this, coils about it, sends down suckers into it, and 

 soon becomes a flourishing plant. 



On the shaded slopes of hills, very close to our valley 

 towns, are many bright summer flowers that most people 

 know nothing about, perhaps because they are afraid of 

 summer dust. For instance, within a few minutes' walk 

 from I/os Angeles street cars, one can gather in June a 

 few late Mariposas, quantities of rose-colored Godetias, as 

 handsome as Mariposas, brilliant scarlet pinks, the climb- 

 ing Pentstemon with its vivid, trumpet-shaped flowers, and 

 the first flowers of the scarlet wild fuchsia, with numbers of 

 other, less showy flowers. 



The Godetia, pictured in Fig. 69, belongs to the even- 

 ing primrose family. It has not the appearance of an ex- 

 clusive flower, but perhaps you have discovered that it 

 keeps its honey beyond the reach of short tongues, and 

 that its style carries the stigma up for pollination by bees 

 or butterflies after its own pollen is shed. The Clarkia is 

 another member of the evening primrose family. It has 

 curious, beautiful flowers in shades of purple, crimson and 

 rose, and you will surely want to study them if the plant 

 grows near you. The Indian pink pictured in Fig. 70, al- 

 though a member of a humble family, has attained great 

 social success, for it is a favorite of the humming birds. Its 

 petals are not united, but the sepals form a deep, slender 

 tube about them, so that all humble guests are excluded. 

 Can you not read the story of its pollination from the pic- 

 ture? The lower flower is newly opened, and the anthers 

 are shedding pollen; the upper flower is older, the stamens 

 are withered, and the three stigmas are matured. 



If you have been watching the Pentstemon pictured in 



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