CHAPTER IX 



several other species with similar flowers and habits. The beach 

 species is very handsome, and serves well as a type of seashore or 

 desert vegetation, having very long roots that lie near the surface 

 ready to utilize every fog and dew, and foliage well protected from the 

 intense light and heat. When children can do field work on the beach 

 they should be encouraged to measure roots and find different sorts of 

 protective coverings. CEnothera Calif arnica, Wats., sometimes grows 

 very luxuriantly in warm, sandy soil. It is a very handsome plant 

 with its silver-grey foliage and large, white, flowers, which finally 

 take on rosy tints. The flowers open about five p. m., and usually 

 close before noon on the next day, but on the sand dunes of the 

 Mohave Desert, I have seen them remain open for thirty-six hours. 

 They are obviously adapted for pollination by large night moths ; the 

 honey is sometimes an inch deep in the long tubes, and both the 

 sticky stigmas and the long anthers covered with a webby mass of 

 coarse pollen, are directly in the way of the entering guest. The 

 yellow evening primrose, either CEnothera biennis, Ijnn., or some of 

 its varieties, is more commonly met than the white species ; it has 

 rather coarse foliage and, while evidently adapted to night pollination, 

 it is frequently found with flowers open throughout the day. Gode- 

 tias, Clarkia and Zauschneria are taken up in Chapter XV. 



The five sympetalous families or orders grouped together in the 

 Reader are very nearly related ; the first four are well represented in 

 California. It is easy to memorize both the characteristics that are 

 common to all, and the character of the pistil, which determines the 

 family. The order Poletnoniacese, to which the genus Gilia belongs, 

 has always a three-celled ovary and three stigmas ; Hydrophyllaceae, 

 including the genera Nemophila and Phacelia, has a two-celled ovary 

 and a style more or less two cleft ; Boraginaceae is the heliotrope and 

 forget-me-not family, and has always a four-parted ovary, but one 

 style and one stigma ; Solanacese, the potato and nightshade family, 

 has but one ovary, which, in many genera becomes a berry in fruit. 



Gilias are particularly abundant, and are very easily recognized as 

 Gilias, though the specific name may be difficult to determine. The 

 kinds pictured in the Reader are very abundant in Southern Califor- 

 nia. Gilia multicauliS) Benth., varies extremely in size, according to 

 its habitat. In poor, dry soil it may be only a few inches high and 

 consist of a single stem bearing two or three pale flowers ; in more 

 favorable places it may be a foot high, with clusters so many-flowered 

 that unless one has learned to know it from its fragrance, it is diffi- 

 cult to distinguish it from G. achillecsfolia, Benth. G. capitata, 

 Dougl., more common in the north, is another Gilia of similar appear- 



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