230 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [17:5— May, 1920 



petals free to open wide to the warm sun, a real cup of gold. 

 Some cups are deepest orange, others palest lemon yellow, others 

 with golden tips and heart of orange, still others are white or flame 

 red. 



In the flower's heart stands the cluster of richly pollen-laden 

 stamens. As the pollen is shed these stamens droop and form a 

 star about the upright pistil which looks so like a candle it has 

 suggested the stanza in Elizabeth Gorden's charmingly descriptive 

 poem on "The California Poppy": 



When Day Break sounds his bugle call 

 The sunny-hearted Poppies all, 

 Rise from their places one by one 

 And take their hats off to the sun. 

 When evening paints the Golden West, 

 Bringing wee babies sleep and rest, 

 With tiny candles all alight 

 Each poppy bids the Sun "Good Night!" 



All my readers know the California poppy for it has gone to 

 make its home in many lands — but never can you know its real 

 beauty until you come to see it in its native home, one glowing, 

 throbbing satin-like scarf drawn through the valleys and upland 

 meadows from north to south of the Golden State. 



The Redwood 



Belle Thompson 



Those who have travelled in the country along the coast of 

 Northern California will never forget the redwood. Its great, 

 erect stature fills one with an awe almost holy. The beauty and 

 grandeur of a redwood forest is beyond human description. As 

 we wander along a forest road we see shadowy cathedrals mossy 

 carpeted and banked with sword and five-fingered ferns. An 

 occasional violet, trillum, yellow pansy or oxalis lifts its head to 

 smile at the trees which have stood sentinels for six or eight hundred 

 years, keeping out the sunbeams which manage, only, to peep 

 through the tops of those horizontally branched crowns. 



We must not forget the characteristic shaggy bark of the red- 

 wood for it gives the tree that wonderful rich-red glow which fairly 

 warms our hearts. The wood of the tree is soft and easily worked 

 and because of the absence of resin is not inflammable to any 

 extent. For this reason there are not many forest fires in redwood 

 regions. The redwood is a very popular building material in 

 California and in the United States and is now being shipped to 



