Wild Gardens 297 



The annual and perennial herbs, though the most noticeable, are not 

 the only plants of California which produce beautiful flowers. We have 

 gorgeous masses of pink rhododendron and cream-and-yellow azalea in 

 springy places on mountainsides; the deep magenta chaparral-pea forms 

 dense, tangled, ir ipenetrable thickets of spiny shrubs on the dryer and more 

 exposed ridges of the same mountains, intermixed with the white tresses of 

 the chamisal and the delicate pink or white waxen bells of the manzanita ; 

 elsewhere we find the glorious white halos of the Matilija poppy, the stately 

 cream-coloured spikes of the yuccas, and dozens of other ornamental shrubs, 

 too numerous to mention here, which would grace any garden. Our orna- 

 mental flowering trees are few, but the creamy trusses of Madroha blossoms, 

 succeeded by bright scarlet berries, and the white candelabras of the 

 California buckeye, are worthy a place in any garden. Among the shrubs, 

 none are greater favourites or more characteristic of California than the 

 blue -tinted ceanothus, or California lilac. It grows on arid, shaly slopes 

 of the mountains near the ocean, where it can catch a whiff of salt-laden 

 air, and seems to reflect some of the blueness of the water in its masses of 

 blossoms. Often it forms the prevailing shrub over areas of hillside many 

 acres in extent, to which it gives a quiet and hazy china-blue tint. 

 California lilac was cultivated in the gardens of the early settlers in San 

 Francisco until replaced by exotics, often much less worthy of a place there; 

 it is now rarely seen in cultivation in the West, though sometimes grown in 

 English gardens. The odour of the flowers is peculiar and not altogether 

 pleasant, but recalls many a joyous California mountain-climb to one who 

 has imbibed a deep love for her solitudes. 



