The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-07-31
THE FLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA

Although the Sprmgtime is now left
far behind, and popular prejudice very
justly associates the spring with wild
are i'll bloom through many interior val
] leys, and in the mountains the flowers
are at their height. Especially this year
there were more flowers in June than in
APRIL and there will still be Throughout
July and August Il great many familiar
| blossoms. They are familiar but I'M
named, or, if named. are SO styled that
one name does duty for two or three en-
tirely different flowers. 1t is almost hui
initiating to observe that until a plant
takes its place as a simple, medicine, or
some way to our daily necessities, it is
passed over in ignorance by generation
after generation of careless folk. People
are either too busy or too idle to name
the insects and flowers. 1t is found suf-
| ficient to the country folk to call them
weeds; and admiring ladies in their sum-
mer jaunts are satisfied with such desig-
nations as that yellow thing" or the
| other purple thing" Let me make
| brief contribution to an impoverished
vocabulary. 1t will not cost much trouble
| to identify few of the common flowers
| | shall describe, and for which l will give
the most popular names that most prop
erly belong to them in all parts of our
country. Although We have not yet or
ganized summer schools in California,
like our more studous Atlantic friends,
yet the teacher is abroad, and insists
upon instructing even in vacation.
There is a large rose-purple tlowernow
| in bloom in the central parts of the State;
its color is perhaps better described to
ladies as Solferino. Each petal in one
species has large dark-purple spot near
the top; in another species there is no
spot, but i'll both a very thin, papery
| texture and pistil like a large lilac or
yellow cross, characterize the flower. 1t
grows a foot or two high, and has slender,
ordinary looking leaves. This is one of
the absolutely unnamed. l have never
heard even an attempt at a christening.
1t does not come in any one of the cata-
logues of either useful or troublesome
plants; it is simply a beautiful flower,
peculiarly Californian, seen by thousands
of us every summer. 1t is Godetia.
named in honor of DR.. Godet. and is
closely related to the Clarkias; many of
which are now in flower, and is some
what like them. One of these is still
abundant in the part Of Napa county
from which | write and through the
Coast Mountains, a strikingly beautiful,
bright, rOse-colored flower, or great
cluster Oh a fragile stem, that shines in
great beauty amid heaps of bushes and
sprouting underground. The botanist
will deny the name of the Clarkia to this
last but it is too slightly different to de-
serve any other popular name, and hope
those who hgve separated it will put it
back again in the group.
All our roadsides and those fields left
to Il volunteer crop, are yet adorned with
the beautiful azure lilies that hold on
patiently through several months of dry
weather. They are lilies in strict sense,
waving long waN-like cups among the
yellow grasses. Let them not be called
blue-bells. \ blue bell hangs with its
mouth downward, and these blue lilies
stand upright. Wild Agapanthus would
suit them well. The great tiger-lilies.
and the fragrant, pale purple lily are just
coming, and are not abundant so far
south. But the Mariposas are scarcely
gone; the gay yellow ones, with brown
spots and lines, are easily recognized as
lilies or tulips, if it seems more natural
to call them so. The Spaniards did well
to call them Mariposa--butterfy- flower.
The large white Mariposa is still in bloom
ut the end of June on high shelves in the
them buttercups, but all large cup-like
flowers are not buttercups nor peoples.
These Mariposas. you will see, have the
leaves and dubious roots of a lily. The
botanical name is ColocAortus, which
means pretty grass.
You cannot help coming across ole or
two SNOWY and very beautiful monkey
flowers, one Il large salmon-coored cup, |
blooming in great proluSion on low,
sticky, ragged-looking plant, and the
other about as large, but of a soft, golden
yellow. with reddish spots on one lip. |
The last grows always in low, wet, sunny |
places, has Il weak stem and coarsish |
leaf. You always stop t" pick and adj
mire the golden velvet cups of this ''yel-
low thing" 1t is the golden monkey |
flower WimulHs luteus-and the other is |
the .Nmulus glutiaosus. These are Latin |
names SO near the English that it will |
not puzzle the feeblest to remember.
You now find everywhere, both in
sheltered and in open places, Il rich yell |
low daiSy-lke flower, with tinely-cut, |
pule-sreen leaves, like chrysanthemum |
leaves. 1cjloN uiiSS lhey Sih IL, Dul IL |
is more like the coreopsis, and, for want |
of better popular name. let it be called |
so. Daisies have leaves growing on the |
ground, and this unusually pretty flower |
does not.
Every child must stop to gather the
bright scarlet flower they call Indian |
pink. Its love of stone heaps its sticky |
stem and its fiery, fringed petals easily |
describe this favorite wild flower. But |
for very good scientific reasons it ought
not to be called Il pink; and its sickness
has earned it the name of the old wine |
gods attendant. the untidy Silenus, who
nourished before an age of pocket-halll- |
kerchiefs So the Greeks called this |
plant Sienc, and so should we. The Eng |
fish call it catch-tiy; but SO they miss the
classic story and do not improve the
NAME In comparison with many of the |
misnomers that light upon flowers, sup
pose Indian pink is Il tolerable name, and
we can bear it if it holds its ground. But
there is another conspicuous scarlet bios
som, much more common that is known
by the same name. 1t will be recognized
if describe it as bushy looking tuft of
fame-colored flowers. seen on all open,
sunny hills. and borders of woods, until
late i'll the summer. Painter S-bush it
yr,S called Inv early travn1lnrs tbrouph |