Thelf esl*American*Scientisl 



Volume XVIL August, ipoS. Whole Number 



AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS OF BAN DIEGO. 

 (By James S. Lippincott.) 



[The following, revised by the editor, is taken from a pamphlet pub- 

 lished in 1874 by the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Ban Diego.] 



The vegetation of San Diego presents an extraordinary appearance to 

 the visitor from the northern and eastern states, and, if he be possessed 

 of scientific proclivities, will prove exceedingly interesting. Should he ar- 

 rive in December, his attention will be early arrested by the peculiar mild- 

 ness and the even range of temperature, which permits the continued 

 blooming of many plants, and the appearance of flowers, whose congeners 

 he is accustomed to find greeting the early spring in his eastern home. The 

 equable character of the temperature through December, January and Feb- 

 ruary is strikingly expressed in dormant condition of sundry incipient 

 flowers, which, having advanced to the condition of colored buds, await 

 through the three months named for a few warmer days in which to evolve 

 their colors. One of the most remarkable of tnese is a caper-like plant 

 (Isomeris arborea), which early in December exhibits a sparse bloom, and 

 continues to labor under the difficulties of its condition, making no advance 

 until March, when a few degrees of additional heat open its fine yellow flow- 

 ers, and soon its large inflated brown seed-vessels appear at the extremi- 

 ties of the long protruded pistils. 



The earliest plant which appears upon the lower bench or mesa, is 

 a saxifrage (Saxifraga Parryi) . This, like its eastern sisters, leads the 

 floral throng, and blooms in December [or earlier, with the first showers of 

 winter,] but unlike them enjoys the advantage of a tuberous root — a neces- 

 sary aid for preserving its life during the long droughts of summer. Draw- 

 ing sustenance from a depth of from four to six inches, it sends up its long, 

 slender scape, and pale diminutive flowers, but anchored below, resists the 

 unfavorable agencies that would destroy every eastern saxifrage, though 

 accustomed to meagre fare, and taking fast hold in "the clefts of the 

 rocks." In the sunny exposures in the arroyas occurs a shrub (Eriogonum 

 fasciculatum) , which, in December, adorns its sprays of fine cut foliage 

 with heads of small, white flowers. For many weeks no others, except the 

 above named, are conspicuous in uncultivated grounds. Soon a bright yel- 

 low flower (OEnothera) hugs the soil, which it adorns with its bright stars, 

 and a yellow violet, its petals shaded on the back with a rich brown, and 

 its throat marked with dark lines, throws up its long peduncles from its 

 leafy prostrate stem. Over the clumps of laurel-sumac (Rhus laurina) 

 soon begin to trail the long green stems of the ehilicothe (Megarrhiaa 

 Californica) , with its racemes of white flowers. This extraordinary plant 

 is possessed of a vast storehouse of supplies, and appears to be capable of 

 enduring a siege through years of drought. Its conn is a solid fleshy mass, 

 often exceeding the size of a bushel measure, and to the taste, intensely bit- 

 ter. From this mass the long stems arise annually, and adorn large c.him;: 

 of shrubbery with their green palmate' leafage, and on the pistillate plant 

 are developed, in March, the green spiny cucumbers, 



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