CLARKIA (Clarkia elegans, Dougl.). Flowers reddish 

 purple or pink, an inch or more in diameter, the petals rhom- 

 boidal in outline narrowed abruptly to long, slender claws; 

 nodding in the bud in racemes at the summit of simple or 

 branched annual stems from a few inches to several feet in 

 height even 6 feet in damp ground. Leaves an inch long or 

 so, alternate, ovate to linear, and usually toothed. 



Clarkia is one of the commonest of California wayside flow- 

 ers in spring and early summer, and is distributed on hillsides 

 and valleys from Mendocino County to Los Angeles, and on 

 the lower altitudes of the Sierra Nevada. It is a plant of a 

 blushing disposition not only petals and sepals being pro- 

 nouncedly reddish, but stamens, seed-vessels, and even the 

 foliage all showing the same fiery tendency; and when occur- 

 ring in masses, as is often the case, it is very showy. 



In the Yosemite region, as well as northward and southward 

 along the mountains, and eastward to Nevada and Utah, the 

 species C. rhmnboidea, Dougl., is frequently fou;.d. It is a 

 smaller plant, and the flowers are distinguished by petals 

 with claws that are broad and toothed. 



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