July 15, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



329 



soils the more valuable kind is often completely run out 

 by the other. In light, sandy soils the E. cicutarium is more 

 likely to hold its own. Its long, red tap-root will then descend 

 lor moisture to the depth of several feet, and its leaves will 

 keep green when everything else that is of value as forage is 

 dried up. The rosettes formed by its radical leaves lie close 

 to the ground in winter, and resist even heavy frosts without 



of south California its spread is sometimes arrested by the 

 red ant, which gathers the seeds in its burrows, leaving con- 

 spicuous piles of the awns outside, around its hills. 



Oxalis corniculata is locally a very persistent weed, resisting 

 the summer's drought to an extraordinary degree ; but it is not 

 generally distributed, though more common in southern than 

 in northern California. 



injury. Both plants are regarded as marks of a rich soil ; and 

 in such soils the task of keeping them in check is indeed a 

 serious one, for the seeds will continue to germinate in the 

 driest and hottest times of midsummer, after the land is " laid 

 by"; and the costly operation of hoeing alone can master it 

 at that season. The propagation of the alfilerilla as a pasture 

 plant is rendered difficult by the nature of the seeds, with their 

 long, spirally coiled awns (styles) ; and in certain sandy soils 



nticola. — See page 330. 



The western Poison Oak, or jSumac {Rhus diversiloba), 

 is a very persistent invader of pastures on which it formed 

 part of the original growth, and keeps sprouting up from 

 fragments of root-stocks remaining alive in the soil for years. 

 In company with the Brake Fern (Pteris aquilina) it is usually 

 the last of the native vegetation to be subdued by cultivation, both 

 in the Coast range and in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. 



University of California. E. W. Hilgard. 



