THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 3 
world of yellow, it is a world of red or blue. A most profuse 
bloomer is the wild lupine {Liipimis pnsilliis) , as is also the blue 
larkspur, which takes on a much richer color than our eastern 
flower. 
All of these gay flowers are prodigal of their bloom after the 
rainy season, but one is forced to add that it is sometimes two 
years between showers, a bit discouraging to the members of the 
floral kingdom, save the cacti and plants located near the moun- 
tain springs. There is a handsome red mallow {Malvastrum 
coccinetim) that grows on the mountain side, small and clustering 
like the verbenas, in which family I should place it if not contra- 
dicted by specialists who are so ready to disturb and distrust gen- 
eral conclusions. Another red flower is a kind of painted cup, 
fCastilleja indiversa, with lots of green in its make up, and these 
with the gilia and red portulaca, gives the hills a vermillion haze 
in their season. But nothing can out-rival the scarlet of the red 
cactus bloom, small flowered but profuse. A mass of crimson 
seen by a party of us one day while riding over a mountain trail, 
created confusion in our ranks, for our guide at first took it for a 
scarlet Indian blanket, out of which might develop an Indian, and 
if one Indian, more Indian; under the circumstances not a very 
desirable contretemps. 
ELEMENTS DESTRUCTIVE TO OUR NATIVE WILD 
FLOWERS. 
By Frank A. Suter. 
The principal element destructive to our native flora has ex- 
isted for over three hundred years, and begins with the advent of 
civilization upon the American Continent. The destruction 
caused by the extensive removal of wood-lands, and their subse- 
quent cultivation is probably greatest of aU. Plants thus driven 
from their environment are obliged to seek other habitats or per- 
ish. As a result, many of our native plants have become local- 
ized and dependent upon the protection of some indulgent land- 
owner. How often must we learn that some favorite haunt of 
our childhood days, where we used to hunt the hepatica or the 
shooting star, is about to be turned into cultivation, or that some 
