OLD-FASHIONED WILD FLOWERS 



BY HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS 



UNLIKE the wild flowers of the East- 

 ern States, which are coaxed forth 

 by the spring rains, the California 

 wild flowers are in their splendor dur- 

 ing the winter and spring, after the fall 

 rains. If the rains are late in coming the 

 flowers are correspondingly late; if the 



WILD PEONY 



rains are meagre the flowers are few; but 

 if Jupiter Pluvius does his duty by Cali- 

 fornia and the year is a "wet" one, every 

 available patch of ground becomes carpeted 

 with blooms of every color and size, and the 

 landscape is not unlike one produced by an 

 impressionist painter on canvas. 



Among those that impress the California 

 resident whose early days were spent in the 



East are the blossoms which resemble the 

 flowers of grandmother's garden and carry 

 one back to the days of childhood when a 

 trip among these fragrant blossoms was an 

 eventful one. 



In Los Angeles County, during the win- 

 ter and early spring, grow wild peonies, 

 larkspurs, four-o 'clocks, hollyhocks, portu- 

 lacas and heliotropes, some of which look 

 enough like their cultivated sisters to make 

 one recognize them at once. 



Perhaps the one which is quaintest in 

 appearance and least resembles the culti- 

 vated flower is the wild peony (Pceonia 

 brownii) — the only species of North America. 

 The leaves seem to be the same as those of 



BLUE LARKSPUR 



