The Canchalagiia. 4S 



lunlcle joints 2 to 6, and the antennal club pure white, dorsum 

 of thorax dark brown, the sides yellowish, front and middle fem- 

 ora and tibice whitish, hind femora and base ot hind tibiae dark 

 brown, all tarsi whitish, infuscated toward the tips. Length one 

 and three-fourths m.m. 



Issued July 7th from an adult Pseudococcus yuccce female. 



Since writing the above I have received word from Dr. Riley, 

 our national Entomologist, to whom I sent specimens of each ot 

 tfie above described Coccids; he writes me that they are probably 

 new speciesbelonging to the genera to which I haverelerred them. 

 Both species are evidently nati\'es of this coast. 



Los Angeles, August i, 1890. D. IP. Coqidllell. 



THE CANCHALAGUA. 



[r.ici/ic Rural Pnss, Aug. 2,5, 1890.) 



If you visit this winter some of the Spanish sections in South- 

 ern California, where the large, spacious adobe house still re- 

 mains in fashion, you may from 'curiosity desire to. cross the 

 threshold of some humble Mexican family or even toglance within 

 the squalid hut of the Indian. Should you do any of these 

 things, it is more than likely that you will find carefully hung in 

 some safe place bunches of a little plant that has been dried tor 

 use in case of emergency. 



The plant to which I refer is the Conchalagua or Canchalagua 

 ot the Mexicans and Indians, the California pink or centaury of 

 the English race, Erythraea venusta of botanists. Medicinally 

 this plant possesses valuable antiseptic and febrifuge properties 

 and is in high repute as a bitter tonic and stomachic. With the 

 old Mexican families and the few surviving Indians it is an ever- 

 present and valued household remedy, and is seldom mi.ssing 

 from their rafters, together with red-peppers and "jerky," when 

 they have not become too civilized for these luxuries. 



Some have asserted that this plant forms the basis of the widely 

 advertised medicine known as August flower, but of this I have 

 no satisfactory proof. However, it is used by the medical pro- 

 fession to a considerable extent, and I have an order from a 

 prominent homeopathic firm tor a quantity of the drug. 



But it is not to the real or fancied medicinal qualities of this 

 herb that I would call attention, but rather to its surpassing lo\'e- 

 liness as a flower, ranking among the foremost of the many hand- 

 some flowers which California has given to the horticulturist. 



It seldom exceeds a foot in height, the plant being a low-branch- 

 ing annual, bearing a multitude of showy flowers on pale-green- 

 ish stems with light apple-green foliage. The corolla is rotate, 

 with a slender tube and five (rarely four or six) divisions. The 

 corolla exceeds an inch across, the five divisions of a brilliant 

 shade belonging somewhere between solferino and magenta — too 

 dark and brilliant for rose-purple, with a narrow white circle 

 where the five divisions unite. The center and tube of the corolla 



