u.^ns 



Volume IX. 



September, 1895. 



Number 80. 



THE PARTRIDGE-BREAST ALOE. 



ALOE VARIEGATA Linnaeus. An African 

 plant of great beauty, producing spikes of bril- 

 liant coral red flowers. It is found in many 

 old-fashioned gardens and receives its com- 

 mon name from the feathery mottling of the 

 leaves. 



THE VELVET CACTUS. 



YERBA MANSE. 



CEREUS EMORYI Engelmann. This is one 

 of the best-known of California cacti, the 

 slender, thickly-set yellowish spines giving it 

 a peculiarly beautiful appearance. The spines 

 on the young joints are shorter, soft and flexu- 

 ous; the flowers are yellowish, followed by a 

 small edible fruit. 



ANEMOPSIS CALIFORNICA B. & H. This 

 is one of the favorite medicinal herbs of the 

 old Spanish Californians, but has won a per- 

 manent place in European greenhouses, and 

 should be given the attention it deserves in 

 the land of its birth. It is readily grown in 

 moist soil, the apple-green foliage, frequently 

 blotched with crimson, showing off the rather 

 large white flowers to great advantage. 



ALLIUM HAEMATOCHITON Watson. 



The mesas and hills around San Diego are 

 decked in springtime with the clusters of 

 bright purplish-tinted flowers of this wild 

 onion, which deserves a prettier name at the 

 hands of its friends. It does not prove quite 

 hardy in New England, but will give enough 

 pleasure for the cost of growing in the house 

 among its more showy cousins. 



THE CHOLLAS. 



A former characteristic of Southern Califor- 

 nia landscapes were the thickets of cholla cac- 

 tus, which still decorate some of our uncleared 

 hillsides, and abounds in the desert regions 

 and unsettled parts of Lower California and 

 Mexico. The cholla belongs to the same genus 

 as the prickly pear, but differs mainly in the 

 cylindrical, instead of flat, joints and in its 

 non-edible fruits. 



OPUNTIA PROLIFERA Engelmann. This 

 densely-branching shrub bears a small flower 

 of a pomegranate purple, and once grew in 

 great abundance where the city of San Diego 

 now exists. 



OPUNTTA SERPENTINA Engelm. Procum- 

 bent, with yellow flowers, comparatively rare 

 in cactus collections. 



THE HEDGEHOG CACTUS. 



ECHINOPSIS MULLERI. A hybrid, of rapid 

 growth, blooming early, and with its large 



atiny rose-colored flowers is justly called the 

 »f its < lass. 



ECHINOPSIS EYRIESTI ZUCC. This is less 

 iinsiliriK in appearance than E. Mulleri, but 



'"luces; lovely pure white flowers in great 

 abundance. 



STAPELIAS, OR "TOAD CACTUS." 



These curious plants, native to South Africa, 

 belong to the asclepias (or milkweed) family, 

 but are popularly known by the names "toad 

 eaclus," or "carrion cactus," the former from 

 the mottled color of the flower of the best- 

 known variety, the latter from the strong fetid 

 odor exhaled by the flowers. Like most suc- 

 culents, thev are easily grown. There are 

 more than fifty varieties known. 



