176 Through San Gorgonio Pass. 



numerous dense and thick terminal oblong or cylindrical spikes 

 of flowers. The yellowish corolla is tipped with bright lemon- 

 yellow on the lower lobes, the upper part tipped with brilliant ma- 

 genta, the whole encircled and crowned with brilliantly colored 

 floral bracts of a rich magenta or crimson-purple. 



Poeonia Brownii (P. Californica Nutt.) with its coarse 'brick-red' 

 flowers was observed in bloom on these hills, and rattleweed (Astra- 

 galus) was also abundant. The delicate, lovely rose-purple flowers 

 of Grilia dianthoides, growing in large patches by the roadside, com- 

 manded the admiration they invariably elicit. The popcorn flowers 

 (Krynitzkia species), of a snowy whiteness, dotted the fields of 

 alternate green and blue and gold. 



At Beaumont, at the summit of the pass, single roots of the fra- 

 grant Viola pedunculata formed masses of foliage and flowers two 

 feet and more across, six inches high, and bearing hundreds of the 

 peach-scented blossoms. The color of this violet is beyond compar- 

 ison, being a shade between lemon and cadmium yellow, of a 

 metallic brilliancy, deep and clear, the backs of the petals veined or 

 tinged a rich prune-purple. The profusion and luxuriance of this 

 violet was here greater than I had previously noted in any other 

 locality, and it seemed to reach its maximum growth in the culti- 

 vated fields. Other lovely annuals, noted in profusion at Beaumont, 

 were the delicate sulphur-yellow cream cups (Platystemon Calif or- 

 nicus), the popcorn flowers, bserias, wild hyacinth (Brodigea 

 capitata), Nemophila insignis, orthocarpus, violets, sanicle, Sidalcea 

 malvoeflora and last, but not least, Eschscholtzia Californica — the 

 State floral emblem of California. 



The Golden Eschscholtzia was here in the hight of its beauty. 

 Single plants would measure one to two feet high, and over a yard 

 across. I estimated that one of these plants would bear over 500 

 flowers, and each flower that I measured was fully four inches in 

 diameter or over, some measuring five inches! This was evidently 

 the typical form, as the large, succulent roots are perennial. The 

 intensely brilliant coloring of the flowers, words cannot depict, and 

 the artist has yet to correctly imitate and do justice to the coloring. 

 It is most nearly described as of a deep orange color, and yet, a touch 

 of crimson or scarlet exists in its composition, which makes itself 

 felt when a large field of the flowers is seen at a distance. 



Single fields of this magnificent flower, hundreds of acres in 

 extent, were observed, which, at a distance of five or six miles, were 

 of a uniform vermilion hue — a lake of fire amid an emerald sea. 

 Such a sight, viewed from near and from afar, is one never to be 

 erased from memory, but the true artistic beauty of the flower is lost 

 beside the magnificence of such a vast display of brilliant, rich but; 

 uniform coloring. 



From Beaumont to the Whitewater river is a gradual descent 

 and one continuous garden of flowers with now and then an alter- 



