44 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



pinnate leaves, bears a clear blue flower that looks at one 

 so trustfully and innocently that it has come to be known 

 in popular speech as baby-blue-eyes. Another common 

 blue flower which appears in February or even earlier, is 

 the familiar Brodiea, a liliaceous plant with long grass- 

 like leaves and tall, naked flower stalks tipped with a 

 close cluster of conspicuous bloom. Country people some- 

 times call the plant wild onion, which, if unpoetic, is less 

 inaccurate than some popular names, for it and the onion 

 are near akin. The brodiea is one of the few wild flowers 

 of California that can be plucked and sent east with 

 reasonable assurance of carrying fresh. Buds, however, 

 should be gathered for this purpose. Under ordinary con- 

 ditions they remain unopen in the package if surrounded 

 with damp paper at the start ; and put at once into water 

 on arrival at their destination, will in all likelihood expand, 

 and remain fresh for several days. Of violets, which form 

 such a feature in the spring flora of the East, Southern 

 California has but one, I believe — that an exquisite yellow 

 one tinted with brown on the back of the upper petals, and 

 so large as to have won for itself the common name of 

 pansy. Botanically it is known as Viola pedunculata. 



A very conspicuous vernal bloom in this Land of Sun- 

 shine is that of the Chilicothe — a rapidly growing vine of 

 the gourd family, which clambers over bushes in low 

 grounds and bears abundant racemes of showy white 

 flowers. Like the eastern man-of-the-earth (Ipomoea pan- 

 durata) it has an enormous root, said to be sometimes as 

 big as the trunk of a man. One of the pleasant sights that 

 linger in the writer's memory is a small tree of the Calif- 

 ornia holly laden with its bright red berries and over it, 

 like a flowerd mantle of tender green, a chilicothe vine in 

 full bloom. It seemed to typify the conquest of winter by 

 spring. 



Pasadena, Calif. 



