PLANTS FOR VARIOUS SITUATIONS 91 



King is, as its name indicates, carmine. Alba is a 

 pure white form, but it is in the yellow varieties that 

 the flower is best known, and it is this color that is 

 recognized as the State Flower of California. 



All of us know, and many of us love that sturdy 

 little salamander, the portulaca, which so delights 

 in a hot, dry situation. The double flowers are excep- 

 tionally attractive, and the plants are fine for edging, 

 carpeting under taller-growing plants or for use on 

 the rockery. It is only necessary to scatter the seed 

 sparsely over the surface of the soil and wait for re- 

 sults. Once established in the garden the portulaca 

 may be depended upon to come up season after season 

 of its own accord. All single flowers should be pulled 

 up as soon as they show bloom and not allowed to go 

 to seed, as they bear an enormous amount of seed and 

 one pod is sufficient to seed an entire bed. Scarlet, 

 crimson, white and yellow are the colors produced, 

 and all are attractive, but the white are the daintiest 

 of all, and look far too delicate for such an exposed 

 position as the portulaca delights in. 



Most poppies are sun-loving plants and light up a 

 garden with a very blaze of color during their season 

 of bloom. This is especially true of the Matilija 

 poppy of California, whose great white blossoms are 

 borne aloft on tall stems five or six feet high, which 

 often bear a dozen or more expanded flowers at one 

 time. Almost as distinctive and beautiful is the 



