CHAPTER IX 



Angeles. The one in the illustration in the Reader is perhaps the 

 most attractive, coming as it does against the delicate background of 

 early vegetation ; the children call it pop-corn flower. Many others 

 of the white forget-me-nots are rough or prickly. 



The family Solanaceae includes the nightshade, potato, tomato, 

 Chili pepper, egg plant, tobacco, tree tobacco, ground cherry, 

 " Jimson " weed, and many showy cultivated plants, such as Petunia, 

 Stramonium, and several climbers with large, handsome flowers. The 

 common, weedy nightshade of the south is Solatium Douglasii^ 

 Dunal., sometimes considered a variety of S. nigrum. The fragrant, 

 blue nightshade is .S. Xanti, Gray; on Catalina Island the variety 

 Wallacei of this species has extremely large, handsome flowers. I 

 have yet to learn of any case of poisoning from S. Douglasii\ children 

 frequently eat the berries with impunity. I have known one instance 

 of poisoning from the handling of S. Xanti. The pollination of both 

 species is given in the Reader. The tree tobacco, Nicotian a gla uca, 

 Tourn , and the California "Jimson" weed, Datura meteloides, DC., 

 will receive attention in Chapter XVI. Our native tobaccos, 

 N. Bigelovii, Wats., and other species, are disagreeable herbs hardly 

 common enough to merit much attention. The ground cherry, 

 Physalis czquata, Jacq.,is a rather pretty introduced weed not uncom- 

 mon in loamy fields. It has nodding, yellow flowers and fruits 

 enclosed in pretty inflated calyxes. 



Our wild morning-glory, Convolvulus, is always interesting in the 

 field, but is of little use for in- door study because the flowers collapse 

 so quickly. Cultivated morning-glories are easily and quickly grown 

 in our climate, and their twining will be watched with much interest ; 

 it is readily seen that the tips actually revolve, and that they will 

 revolve in but one direction. The most common wild Convolvulus of 

 Southern California is C. occidentalis ', Gray. Its flowers provide some 

 honey, but it is so hidden by a combination of ovary, stamens and 

 corolla tube that I have never yet seen an insect get it except by 

 biting through the corolla. Bees sometimes collect pollen from the 

 anthers that form a dome over the forked stigma, and in doing this 

 they must effect close as well as cross pollination. This morning- 

 glory has a strong perennial root, and is somewhat persistent even in 

 cultivated fields, but the Convolvulus that is proving so troublesome 

 in vineyards and orchards in some parts of the state, is a virile Kuro- 

 pean weed, C. arvensis, Iv. The dodder, Cuscuta, belongs to the order 

 Convolvulaceae, but will be considered in Chapter XV. 



The nodding white ~M.a.riposa.,Caloc/iortus albus, Dougl., is found in 

 the foot-hills and mountains throughout the state, and one can hardly 



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