CALIFORNIA WILD-FLOWER NOTES. 



New York apples commanded fifty cents and upwards 

 more per barrel than western fruit in St. Louis market. 

 Why ? Simply because they came in clean new barrels, 

 were free from worms and scab, were alike all through 

 the barrels, and because the barrels were all of one size. 

 Herein lies the secret of success ; and as I stated before, 

 we must learn it if we wish to succeed. 



In all this I think there is more in properly thinning 



737 



than in any other one part of the programme. The time 

 is at hand when it will pay to hire little girls to go along 

 the rows, and with scissors to clip off great numbers of 

 the strawberry blossoms. I have tried this enough to 

 know that it will be well repaid, since large berries 

 bring a fair price at times when ordinary ones won't pay 

 for boxing, freight and commission. 



Montgomery Co., Mo. S. Miller. 



CALIFORNIA WILD-FLOWER NOTES. 



'^HE PINK Abro7iia umbcllata has 

 ^ the fragrance and color of the 



trailing arbutus ; but it covers 

 the sand with a rosy cloud here 

 by the shore, in the city of San 

 Francisco, in one spot where 

 we have found it in blossom all 

 the year round (save in Janu- 

 ary) for the past ten years. The leaves are fleshy, 

 of irregular shape ; the stems pink and salmon 

 color, rising up from the sand, which sticks all over 

 them, the plant being Covered with a glutinous gum. 

 It is called the "Sand Verbena," but belongs to 

 the nyctagineag (four-o'clock) family. I myself can 

 see no resemblance to the four-o'clock, save in the 

 various colors ; but four-o'clocks do not grow here 

 for me to compare them. 



About twenty of these beautiful salver-shaped flowers, 

 each with a greenish tube a third of an inch long, con- 

 cealed in which are the yellow stamens growing on the 

 sides, and the little stigma, bloom in umbels on delicate 

 pink stems three inches long. When the little bunch 

 blooms it is all at once, as there are no buds in the cen- 

 ter as in the verbena and heliotrope. The moment it is 

 gathered it proceeds to fade; no persuasions of mine 

 will make the root live. Seeds I have not tried. The 

 pod is about an inch across, and looks somewhat like 

 the star-leaved maple's round seed-vessels, with points 

 all over it, one cell and one seed to every flower. 



as delicate as in A. iimbellata ; the leaves are thicker and 

 heart-shaped, and it hugs the sand more closely, making 

 a pretty gold and green carpet for the Pasidio soldiers 

 when they are ofi drill. Dozens of the carrot-like per- 

 ennial roots were dangling from the bank where the 



MiMULUS GLUTINOSUS. 



The A. latifolia has bright orange yellow flowers, de- 

 liciously fragrant ; the (calyx) lobes more rounded, not 



MiMULUS I.UTEUS. 



stormy waves had washed the sand away to help raise 

 the harbor-Lar that has just wrecked the "Palestine." 



A. maritima, with bright red flowers, grows at San 

 Diego. A. fragrans has white blossoms, and is found 

 on the Columbia river. The yellow variety is common 

 on all our sea beaches, .with the trailing Convoh-uhis sol- 

 danella, that has a bright pink corolla and handsome, 

 shining, smooth, reniform leaves, such as we found at 

 Nassau, Bahamas. 



For all who like the fragrance of musk, the Mimtilus 

 cardiiialis, with large, bright scarlet funnel-form corollas 

 and yellow throat marked with red, is very desirable. 

 It grows abundantly in gardens, but the sticky leaves 

 catch all the dust. In its home in Mercer county it 

 lights up the ferny brook-sides beautifully. The 

 side lobes roll underneath, the calyx is long and 

 curved, the stems twisting, so the flower seems up- 

 side down, and the spatula-shaped stigma and downy 

 yellow stamens are conspicuous. The musk per- 

 fume is much stronger all over /)/. cardinalis than 

 in M. mosckatus, var. longiJJoriis : creeping, with yel- 

 low flowers an inch long. M. luieiis also grows read- 

 ily from seed, to four feet in height in wet places; 

 is particularly handsome near Fort Winfield Scott, 

 where its bright yellow flowers, spotted within, cover 

 the banks. The smooth, ovate leaves are dotted with 

 purple. M. tricolor is but a few inches high ; flowers 



