CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



times they germinate in spring and summer in highly culti- 

 vated orchards and gardens and become troublesome weeds. 

 In winter, the bur-clover infests lawns and tilled soil 

 generally. 



There are two kinds of filaree common on untilled 

 California land ; the red-stemmed filaree ; or pin clover, 

 which has very finely cut leaves, usually forming flat 

 rosettes, and the musky filaree with coarser, paler 

 leaves that grow nearly upright ; the musky odor is 

 more noticeable when the leaves are wilted. The red- 

 stemmed filaree is very widely distributed, and is a good 

 forage plant, but the musky flavor of the other kind seems 

 to be disagreeable to cattle, and they eat it only in limited 

 quantities, so in some places it seems likely to drive out 

 the more valuable kind. Fortunately the red-stemmed 

 kind is the hardier ; it can survive severe frosts, and in 

 some soils can even defy the summer drought. We have 

 already studied the fruits of the filaree and can readily 

 understand how it is sure to appear as a weed in cultivated 

 soil. 



All three of these foreigners seem to thrive in Califor- 

 nia even better than at home. There is another immi- 

 grant that is vastly more prosperous in this climate than in 

 its native soil, the fox-tail, or barley grass. In England 

 this grass is called the wall-barley, for it is a straggling, 

 insignificant weed that is literally crowded to the walls and 

 crannies by stronger plants ; but here it occupies acres of 

 wayside and pasture land, crowding out other and better 

 plants. It is rarely eaten by stock except when it is very 

 young, and its habit of maturing late is also an advantage. 

 It is when other grasses are dying back that the fox- 

 tail pushes its barbed head sunwards, and, unmolested, 

 ripens its seeds. And such a pest as these barbed fruits 

 become ! They bore into the nostrils of grazing 

 animals ; all summer they lie in wait for anything clothed 



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