BUDS. BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



495 



tufts are prettier on the gray rocks than those of the, 

 flaming "painted-cup" Castilleia latifulia, set among 

 the pure lavender tints of the ' ' sea-clifif daisy " (Erig-ej-on 

 glaucus) with blue-gray leaves. The orange-colored 

 violet {V. -fieduiicidata) loves the sea. Its long swaying 

 stems cover fields and hills from March until May. It 

 is larger than any of our eastern violets, has cordate 

 leaves and a flower-stem six or seven inches long. 



A novel feature of bordering used successfully in 

 Hotel del Monte grounds, is the English ivy, the same 

 that covers the trunks of the pines and oaks. It makes 

 a handsome raised border a foot across, the pale young 

 leaves mingling with the deep green older ones. In 

 March it contrasted beautifully with ribbon-beds of pale 

 pink and blue hyacinths, light blue tufted pansies, and 

 rose and white tulips. Heliotrope and white jasmine 

 sprays adorn one greenish-gray wall ; trained blossoming 

 fruit-trees and the richest of roses another, and white and 

 purple clematis still another. Purple maurandia covers 

 the lamp-post, masses of red poppies and pelargoniums, 

 in exquisite shades, palms, bananas and oleanders abound. 

 An immense old live-oak at " Sea-side," near by, c&vers 

 T.% acres with its branches, some of which lie upon the 

 ground. The fresh young foliage contrasts well with the 

 old leaves. What are wrongly called " dead-oaks, " be- 

 cause they drop their leaves in winter, are in spring a 

 pale, pinkish green tint so pleasant to see. Astragalus 

 Doufflasii. or "rattle- 

 weed," poisonous to cattle, 

 grows profusely in this 

 region. Fortunately the 

 plant is bitter, and grows 

 mostly at the edge of fields, 

 so that unless cows are half- 

 starved, they do not care 

 much for it. The pretty, 

 pinnate leaves are pale 

 bluish green; the flowers 

 are yellowish white, their 

 inner wings touched with 

 purple. They are borne on 

 a spike two inches long, and 

 their inflated, reddish green 

 seed - pods are often two 

 inches in length. 



A group of curiously 

 gnarled and twisted cy- 

 presses, with flat, spreading 

 tops, grow in one spot on the 

 shore of Carmel Bay. The 

 flower-cone and foliage are 

 like those of the common 

 Monterey cypress. The 

 rounded octagon cones are 

 over an inch across. The 

 fallen trees, growing where 

 they lie, send up branches in every imaginable form, 

 often whitish gray and sharp-edged, but the bright green 

 growth is vigorous, though bearded with moss and of 



great age. May they long continue untouched by the 

 dreadful lumberman. Cords and cords of pine wood 

 are daily cut in their neighborhood, and taken north on 



COLLINSIA BICOLOR. 



^■LLLOw' Dahlia. 



the cars from Pacific Grove. The Monterey pine has 

 long needles and flowers, and many rounded cones about 

 three inches long. It is a slender straggling tree of hard 

 pine wood, not at all popular for burning. Here pine- 

 roots grow only on the surface of the rich loam, and are 

 easily upturned by the wind after heavy rains. Wood 

 is four dollars a cord, and pitch-pine kindlings half a 

 dollar a sack. People are continually cutting down the 

 pine trees in Pacific Grove. But little pine wood is used 

 in building houses here. 



Many graceful young trees of Sequoia gigayttea grow 

 about Oakland, California. The leaves are not at all 

 like those of the pine. They grow in long feathery 

 sprays and are prickly to the touch. The cones of this 

 big tree are only i ',4^ inches long. Its spreading branches 

 trail upon the ground. The tree is very ornamental and 

 is successfully grown in England. There are speci- 

 mens quite 50 feet high in the Mount Hope nurseries, 

 Rochester, N. Y.— K. P. S. Boyd, Cal. 



Timely Hints on Geranium Propagation. — About 

 the middle of August take boxes of any convenient size 

 that are four inches in depth, and make openings three- 

 fourths of an inch wide in the bottoms along the center, 

 to provide ample drainage. Cover this space irregularly 

 with hollow pieces of broken pots, place above this an 

 inch of rough siftings of well-rotted loam and leaf-mold, 

 and fill up each box to within half an inch of the top 

 with a compost of two parts sand, one part leaf-mold 

 and one part good rotted loam, these to be roughly sifted. 



