Sherman] THE CALIFORNIA BUSH-TIT 229 



higher one reaches the glory of glories in the true Alpine meadows. 

 Up and up through deep-rooted Casseope and Alpine sorrel many 

 golden composites cling to the rock-ribbed mountain cliff where 

 only the mountain phlox and lichens find a footing. 



Besides these we have in California the bog dwellers. Famous 

 above all the more familiar flowers are the pitcher plants the 

 Darlingtonia Californica a strange hooded monster with snak- 

 like head which lures to its death throat all the insects, foolish 

 enough to enter. One more flower group of lilies must not be 

 forgotten. The exquisitely dainty butterfly lilies or Calochortus, 

 California is proud, indeed of her harebell lilies of the Coast 

 range. We have cream and gold with crimson blotched throat, 

 delicate lavender and above all, the "fairy lantern" of which 

 John Muir writes "Calochortus albus with pure white flowers, 

 growing in shady places among the foothill shrubs, is I think, the 

 very loveliest of all the lily family, a spotless soul, plant saint 

 that every one must love, and so be made better. It puts the 

 wildest mountaineer on his good behavior, with this plant the 

 whole world would seem rich though none other existed." 



Yet, of all California's flowers the poppy is the most universally 

 admired. It enters so completely into the life of her people that 

 it was made the State flower in 1903. We can easily see why it 

 was chosen for the emblem of the "Golden State." It not only 

 suggests the gold beneath California's fertile soil but the golden 

 wheat and the sun-gold overhead. Joaquin Miller, one of Cali- 

 fornia's most famous poet sons, has written these lines of her 

 poppy blooms — 



The golden poppy is God's gold, 

 The gold that lifts, nor weighs us down, 

 The gold that knows no miser's hold, 

 The gold that banks not in the town, 

 But singing, laughing, freely spills 

 Its hoard far up the happy hills ; 

 Far up, far down, at every turn, — 

 What beggar has not gold to burn? 



From a mass of delicately cut, gray-green foliage the poppy bud 

 stands erect on a long slender stem. A queer little toboggan cap 

 of pale green with rosy tip covers the petals and gives the children 

 the chance to call it the poppies' "night cap." This cap breaks 

 around the base when all is ready for blossom time. Up, up it 

 slips along the golden petal roll until it is pushed off leaving the 



