150 California Trees and Flowers. 



large, single, lovely pink flowers, is as pretty as its more showy cul- 

 tivated sisters, and equally admired by those who love the beauties 

 of nature. 



E. minutifola Engelm. Parry's wild Mexican rose, with its 

 small, finely incised foliage, and small pink or white flowers that 

 closely nestled among the leaves, met with a warm welcome when 

 discovered in Lower California in 1882, but has steadily repulsed the 

 kind advances of the gardener and refuses to long survive away 

 from its native sky. 



SALVIA. 



S. carduacea Benth. The Thistle-leaved sage, known to the 

 Mexicans as Chia, is densely white-woolly, with prickly foliage, and 

 showy lavender colored flowers, an inch long, in many-storied head- 

 like whorls on a stem a foot or two high. Cultivated in Europe 

 since 1854. 



S. Columbaria Benth. Smaller and less conspicuous. Also 

 known as Chia. The seeds of either species infused in water form a 

 pleasant mucilaginous drink ; used largely by the aborigines medi- 

 cinally as a beverage. 



SAMBUCUS. 



S. glauca Nutt. The California Elder forms a large bush or 

 small tree and bears prolifically of its edible berries, prized by some 

 for making pies or sauce. 



SCHINUS. 



8. molle L. A graceful evergreen tree, a native of Mexico and 

 South America, with glossy light green drooping leaves in twenty or 

 more pairs of slender leaflets. The small white flowers in large 

 panicles followed by lovely clusters of small red berries. The Pepper 

 tree, as it is called, is very ornamental, and planted extensively for 

 shade or avenues. 



SEQUOIA. 



A remarkable California genus, including the noted Redwood 

 and Big-tree for which California is famous. 



S. gigantea Deciasne. This giant of the California woods, is 

 the largest and tallest tree known to exist on the American conti- 

 nent, attaining a height exceeding 300 feet, only exceeded in size by 

 some of the gums of Australia. 



S. sempervirens Endl. The California Redwood is the most 

 valuable timber tree on the Pacific Coast, attaining a height of 200 to 

 300 feet, with light but strong and durable wood, susceptible to a 

 handsome finish, of a walnut brown color. 



SIMMONDSIA. 



S. Californica Nuttall. A low diffusely branched shrub, form- 

 ing oval bushes one to five (rarely ten or fifteen) feet high with pale, 



