Chaparral 123 
are pretty waxen bells, but with the excep- 
tion of its relative the madrofia, more waxy 
and more bell-like than those of other heaths. 
| Associated with this chaparral in the 
cafions and on the slopes of the Santa Inez are 
two vines. One, a Western species of clema- 
tis (C. lasiantha), is remarkable for its very 
large and cream-coloured blossoms; the other, 
plebeian in name, is yet an aristocrat among 
vines—distinctive in leaf, in flower, and in 
fruit. This lowly cucumber vine, embody- 
ing the immemorial grace of a graceful 
ancestry, intrudes itself everywhere under 
the oaks and through the chaparral, reaching 
its long and greedy tendrils in all directions 
and clinging like the tentacles of a green and 
vegetable octopus to everything with which 
it comes in contact. Touch these tendrils and 
presently they become sinuous and curve at . 
their tips. As if actuated by some motive, 
once one has seized a twig it coils about it 
neatly and compactly while the unwound 
portion of the tendril assumes a corkscrew 
form, thus exerting a tension by which it pulls 
the vine. In this manner myriad tendrils, like 
diminutive arms, constantly work, ever lift- 
ing the plant onward and upward. Stray- 
ing hither and yon, it everywhere unfolds its 
