42 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



water course was filled with a flood of dreamj^ bronze- 

 green color that comes to earth only in the season which 

 the poets call "the sweet o' the year." In fields where but 

 a day or two before a single poppy showed, now tens of 

 thousands were opened to drink in the sun, and little com- 

 panies of women and children were busy gathering them. 

 This is the flower that more than any other is associated 

 with California, and the one that every visitor, whether 

 flower-lover or not, includes among the sights to be seen. 

 It is an extremelj^ sociable plant, just as the eastern ox- 

 eye daisy is and when in bloom makes extensive sheets of 

 intense color, visible for long distances. In some judg- 

 ments, the flower is less attractive in the mass than singly 

 as its strong orange-yellow tone becomes a somewhat 

 rusty color when seen in expanses close to the ground. 

 One especial beauty of the blossom in nature is a peculiar 

 satiny sheen which seems to baflSe the artists who attempt 

 to reproduce it. The botanical] name of this poppy (Esch- 

 oltzia) is so barbarous that it is a relief to turn to the 

 Spanish name for it, "Copa de oro," meaning "cup of 

 gold . ' ' 



Not to the fields, however, so much as to the unbroken 

 soil along the arroyos and to the moist canons among 

 the hills, must one go to find many of the most character- 

 istic blossoms of the opening season. Among these the 

 Easterner finds almost no familiar floral face, but many ex- 

 hibiting family traits that show them to be near relatives 

 of familiar spring flowers of home. Thus in our early 

 vernal rambles in the vicinity of Pasadena, we found the 

 crowfoot family putting itself on view, but only in the 

 shape of one species of woodland buttercup and the wild 

 peony. The latter (Pfeonia Californica) we had found in 

 January sending up red shoots which closely resemble 

 those of the old fashioned garden favorite. The flowers, 

 which we found in abundance a month later, are inconspic- 

 uous compared with the blushing posies borne by the 

 cultivated peony — the brownish red petals concave and in- 

 clined to hide themselves shyly within the calyx. They 



