104 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



So also is the song f the little White Cap (Parus monta- 

 nus), that seems to say, as it sings, " O-o-o, see-e-e, the pretty, 

 pretty, beau-ty ;" the soft andante, and the slightly lingering 

 stress on the second note, to the attentive listener, is sooth- 

 ing in the extreme ; then the ecstatic distinctness, or precise 

 dwelling emphasis on the final note, is of that peculiar 

 sweetness of affection, as if the dear one had a very delicious 

 sugar-plum under its tongue. Early thus do these wood- 

 lands resound, and the alpine shrubs respond, every ear is 

 fresh, every song new, therefore is repetition now no longer 

 monotony, but the ever-charming voice of love. 



Bridal Bower Bush. {Carpenteria Calif ornica.) 



" Is she a nightingale that will not be nested, 



'Till the April woodland has built her bridal bower?" 



— Meredith. 



A new and beautiful native evergreen shrub allied to the 

 Mock Orange ; foliage narrower, thicker texture, like some 

 forms of willows, but much more densely set; or speaking- 

 more specifically still, the leaves are lance-formed, rather 

 thickish or leathery, entire, and the margins slightly invo- 

 luted, whitish underneath like the olive; opposite leaf-stems 

 slightly coherent and sheathing the twigs, usually two to three 

 inches long, barely half an inch or so wide. The flowers 

 pure white, fragrant, two to two and a half inches in expan- 

 sion ; tiny bracteolate leaves, ovate, sharp, not " subulate," 

 only quarter of an inch below the flower, central flower 

 stem none. The flowers arranged in flattened irregularly 

 distributed masses successively blooming. 



The flowering season is about the middle of May, continu- 

 ing with a succession of blooms for a much longer period 

 than their only Summer-green relatives. A charming hardy 

 shrub six to fifteen feet high, heartily commended for pur- 

 poses of rural adornment. 



Tiny Sierra Heather (Bryanthus empetriformis). — This 

 is also another elegant little \Yintergreen Heather, still 

 smaller and more branched than the Breweri, being barely 

 a span or so high, tipt with a cluster of rosy-tinted some- 

 what tubular flowers, pitcher-like, pursed at the mouth, as 

 in the manzanita, arbutus, and huckleberry-bells, and these 

 flowers elevated on naked, or only gland-studded thready- 

 stems, modestly drooping above the erect densely plumy 

 heath-like foliage, emeralding the branches far adown below. 

 A choice ornament for the alpine garden, beautifully adorn- 

 ing inter-rocky spaces of the Sierras at about eight thou- 

 sand feet altitude here, but further north, coming down 

 quite near to the coast level. 



