Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 73 



of gorgeous colors have been produced. It .seems strange that the 

 flower has not been more extensively cultivated in our own land, 

 for it is a very handsome and decorative shrub. 



When it is ''Rhododendron time" in Golden Gate Park, San 

 Francisco, it is said that John McLaren, the superintendent of this 

 world-famous park, feels uneasy, and has policemen guard the 

 flowers day and night, past experience having taught the necessity 

 of this precaution. These celebrated gardens are the pride of San 

 Francisco and the great delight of all who visit the city by the 

 Golden Gate. Many rare hybrids of great .beauty, as well as our 

 exquisite native Rhododendrons, are found growing side by side 

 under the watchful care of the park's wizard a widely known and 

 justly famed Scotch gentleman. 



Our Rose Bay, the Rhododendron californiciim, seems to be 

 irresistible to those who see it in bloom for the first time ; and in some 

 sections, notably about Mt. Tamalpais, the exquisite flowers of this 

 shrub have been nearly exterminated by those who evidently think 

 that to loot and plunder nature's gardens is a proper thing to do, 

 forgetting that other people have the same right to enjoy the beauties 

 of the out-of-doors. 



Emerson, the "Sage of Concord," wrote one of his finest poems 

 about a close relative of our Rhododendron, the "Rhodora," of 

 Massachusetts, and his lines might as easily be applied to our 

 flower : 



"Rhodora! if the sages ask thee zvhy 

 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 

 Tell them, dear, if eyes were made for seeing, 

 Then beauty is its own excuse for being." 



The Rhodora is called "Emerson's Flower." 



Rhododendrons first attracted wide attention in America at the 

 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where fine exhibits were 

 made. It is difficult for some people to believe that our beautiful 

 bloom is really a native wilding. It is more like the triumph of 

 hot-house cultivation. Rhododendron, in the ancient language of 

 flowers, meant danger beware. 



