1880. ] A Botanist in Southern California, 495 
itself above the ground by climbing with its prickly stem up 
other plants. W. insignis Dougl., also with ‘blue flowers, is very 
pretty and common, and is one of the earliest spring flowers. 
The species of Gilia are very numerous, and many of them 
have such differently shaped flowers, and such varied habits of 
growth that a novice would never place them in the same genus. 
There is the G. californica Benth., which has large funnel-shaped 
purple flowers, and leaves awl-shaped and bristle-like, and grows 
into quite large bushes. As an opposite is the G. intertexta Steud., 
a dwarf form of which has small white flowers, and forms a mat 
spread out close on the ground. Then the G. multicaulis Benth., 
with its short upright stem, and small bunch of purplish flowers 
is very different from the G. densifolia Benth., with a white wooly 
stem, linear pointed leaves and large bright blue flowers in dense 
clusters, 
The Convolvulus occidentalis Gray, with its large white flowers, 
twines over the ground and bushes. Though the Liliacee are 
not numerous in species, there is one, Calochorus splendens, which 
is very handsome. The flower is quite large, of a purple-blue 
color, raised on a long slender stem, and as it waves to and fro in 
the air, it well merits its name of “ splendens.” Datura meteloides 
D.C., common on the roadsides, quite puts to shame its relative 
the “ Jamestown” weed, of the East. It has large white flowers, 
six and eight inches long, and forms.a bush two or three feet 
high. It possesses none of that vile odor peculiar to the “ James- 
town,” but has rather an agreeable smell. Mirabilis californica, 
one of the Nyctaginacea, is common all over the hills, and has 
viscid, sticky leaves and stem, and bright purple salver-shaped 
owers. Euphorbia albomarginata forms large mats on the 
ground, one plant sometimes covering very closely a space two 
feet in diameter. Sisyrinchium bellum takes the place of the 
Eastern S, bermudiana, which it very much resembles. 
One of the handsomest plants 1 have ever seen anywhere, is 
the Vucca whipplei Torr., commonly known as the Spanish bay- 
onet, and it is quite common around Los Angeles. Never shall 
I forget the sensation I felt the first time I saw this beautiful 
plant. We were riding up a cañon, near San Juan Capistrano, 
toward the warm sulphur springs, when off to our right appeared 
a tall mass of white. What it was we could not tell, but riding 
toward it, we soon had it revealed to us in all its beauty and 
