WEEDS 



were so crowded that, had ninety-nine per cent of them 

 been taken away, the plain would still have seemed to any 

 but Californians extravagantly flowery." There are resi- 

 dents of Los Angeles, by no means aged, who remem- 

 ber when the land now occupied by the city of Pasadena 

 and other towns, was in spring time one vivid flower gar- 

 den, "like a Persian carpet," they sometimes tell us. Even 

 to-day we can see the same thing by going to the foot-hill 

 or so-called desert regions, that are still uncultivated, pro- 

 vided the sheep, "those hoofed locusts," as Muir calls 

 them, have not been before us. 



A large part of the valley land to-day is occupied by 

 grain, fruit and garden plants; but there are pasture lands 

 that are practically uncultivated, waste lands in and about 

 towns, and always the untilled waysides. Should we not 

 expect to find our own wild flowers in these places ? And 

 do not our native plants dispute with cultivated plants for 

 the possession of the soil, in this case becoming weeds ? 



As a matter of fact, most California children, even city 

 children, are still able to find quantities of our favorite 

 wild-flowers, but sometimes they must seek them in remote 

 nooks. The spring flowers are rarely common in wastes 

 and along waysides, except in recently settled regions, and 

 it is only here and there throughout the state, that native 

 plants trouble growing crops. Some of these native spring- 

 time weeds are, the poppy, the yellow heliotrope, morning- 

 glory, Calandrinia, owl's clover, sand-lupines, chilicothe, 

 poison oak, bracken fern and cactus. Very possibly you 

 have never seen any of these become troublesome. But in 

 summer time all over the state, after the grain has ripened, 

 there are native plants that take possession of the soil ; 

 some of these are the tar-weed, turkey-weed, sunflower, 

 and blue-curls. These plants may be disagreeable and 

 harmful in some ways, but they rarely come early enough 

 to injure the grain. 



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