BOTANY. 371 



of many sorts are mingled in a perfect carnival of color ; then 

 come exclusive family gatherings, where the blues, the crim- 

 sons, or the purples, have it all their own way ; and every 

 now and then you come upon grea.t tracts, resplendent with 

 the most royally gorgeous of all wild flowers, the yellow, or 

 orange poppy, which an old Russian bear of a botanist has 

 stretched on the rack of the name Eschscholtzia., but which 

 long ago some poetic Spaniard, neither a flower " sharp," nor 

 a flatterer of flower sharps, taking a hint from nature, as men 

 were modest enough to do in his time, christened El copo de 

 oro [the golden cup]. Every such tract where the sumptuous 

 blossoms stand thick, reminds one of the * Field of the Cloth 

 of Gold.' They are peculiarly joyous looking flowers, massed 

 together, dancing and hob-nobbing, and lifting their golden 

 goblets to be filled by the morning sun." 



The grass and herbage begin to grow and clothe the land- 

 scape in green after the first heavy rains of the rainy season. 

 These rains may come in December, January, or February ; 

 and until they do come, the earth, in the districts not covered 

 with timber, is brown. The grass continues green until June, 

 when it begins to dry up and turn yellow and brown, which 

 colors then predominate in the landscape until the rains come 

 again. The death of the grass, except at high elevations, is 

 caused not by the cold but by the drought ; and in those months 

 when the prairies of Indiana and Illinois are covered with 

 snow, the valleys of California are dressed in the brilliant 

 green of young grass. 



The azaleas of California are abundant and rich in perfume ; 

 a species of calycanthus, without fragrance, is found in the 

 canons, and the ceanothus, or Californian lilac, of which there 

 are many species, is a beautiful evergreen shrub, growing 

 about ten feet high, with clusters of lilac-like flowers, of 

 various shades of blue, violet, and red, according to the 

 species. The tree produces a multitude of little twigs, and a 

 dense foliage, and may be trimmed into almost any shape. 



