The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-29
FLOWERS OF THE WEST.
Some Of the Botanical Beauties Of the Ca.
ifornia Yalleys.A

can fairly challenge the rest of the
world in the luxurious vegetation of
its spring months. While billiards.
are raging in the middle states and on
the Atlantic coast and snow falls in the
north this great valley presents "A car
| pet of unsurpassed beauty and gran
deur, a sward not of vivid vendure
! alone, but interspersed with innumer-
! able colors of Kaleidoscope picture
The plains, parched and dry in sum-
mer, are transformed in January into
/ emerald fields, the early showers trans
| figuring the uninviting landscape into
I vision of beauty never TO be forgotten,
I The overland tourists, or those from
/ Oregon. Washington and British Column
/ bia. viii remark a certain popularity
about the San Joaquin valley in the
| early spring months. There is almost
! total absence of yellow among the
| green swards of the plains. One does
| not see dandelions and ranunculi, so
| abundant in the north; they appear
! only here and in moist localities and in
/ no great profusion. The spring of CEN
| trail California is ushered in. not with
| yellow. but with biue-the blue of the
| purest and the most exquisite hue,
closely followed by white. The yellow
and the orange appear later.a
The beautiful nemophiIa or ''baby
blue eyes," locks to US with really blue
eyes early in the spring. In Febru-
airy this fragile flower appears among
the deep green of the fields, often in
such a profusion that the prairie looks
like the skies above. This delicate
plant of tender heritage prefers low and
shady localities, it's divided leaves
growing close to the ground. The
flower is an inch or less in diameter,
usually very much less, and lasts until
about May /. After that time the
nemophila is to be found only here and
there in some she ltered hooks and cor
ners.
For a companion the ''babv blue
eyes" have parterres of white forget
me-nots, a modest and insignificant
flower but growing in great profusion.
With the forget-me-not or myosotis is
numbered the wild heliotrope, fra
grant herb of considera bic size, with
pretty orange-colored blossoms; the
blue borrage, rank herb, preferring
damp localities, and the amsickia or
tarweed, an annual with obiong oati
to linear leaves and yellow flowers in
long spikes
One of the most beautiful if not the
most beautiful of all the spring flowers
is the so-called cream cup or platy
stigma. There are no words to de-
i,e, no % II
quisite plant. The petals are so deli
cate that no other flower can be COM
pared in that respect to it. They are
of an exquisite hue, creamy, or pale
yellow of that peculiar color which is
the most difficult of all to initiate in
paint. Often the petals shade to orange
in the center. Their number is six,
with numerous stamens The oblan-
ceolate leaves are usually from half an
inch to an inch long, and are of that
pale green color which can almost be
called gray. The cream cup is slen
dor annual, somewhat villous and COW
cred with delicate hairs. 1t belongs to
the order of the papaveraca, and like
other poppies it has flowers of an ex-
tremely delicate structure. The cream
cup appears very early, usually in the
beginning of March and reaches its
best development at the end of April
A very early spring flower is the fra
grant gilia with funnel form, rotate
corolia divided into five lobes 1t is a
small plant, span to foot high, with
delicate opposite and alternate leaves.
The corolla is pale violet or lilac, often
with brown-purple or yellowish in the
tube of the funnel. The flowers are
small, no more than half an inch in /
diameter, but they are the most fra |
grant of all the early spring flowers. /
In some localities the gilias are known |
under the name of birds eyes
Not so beautiful as the flowers al 1
ready mentioned, but more useful and /
far more robust, is the erodium. com
monty called alfileria, or pin-clover and /
pin-grass. 1t is an unpretcntious flower, |
small and Insignificant, but its bright /
rose color makes it easily recognize bic. /
It is welcome on account of its early /
in the spring. The leaves I
are very nutritious and make an ex-
cellent forage for horses and cows
They impart pleasant flavor to milk
and butter
The wild hyacinth or camass (camas-
STA esculenta) of the order of liliacce
grows very abundantly in the months
OF March, April and May. 1t prefers
moisty situation and is easily distin-
guishcd by its blue or lilac flowers
growing in single raceme. The
leaves are long and linear and the
corrns or bulbs often an inch in liza me-
ter. These bulbs are the delight of
the children and are also largely col
lected for food by the Indians
OF other blue or purple flowers there
IS the sisyrinchum or blue-eged grass,
with very narrow leaves and growing
in moist places, and the shooting star
or wild cyclumen, beautiful plant,
with lanceolate leaves and bright pur-
pie blossoms. They grow in all parts
of California and are also to be found
farther north.
The lupine is also blue, at least the
species which appear first. Later II is
followed by its yellow. pink and white
relations. The lupine, with its flowers
in terminal racemes, is a herbaceous
plant, sometimes even woody, with
pods one and one-haif 20 three inches
long, usually ten TO twelve seeded.
There are over sixty species Of this
plan. on the western coast and the in
terror region west of the Rocky noun
tains, forty Of them growing on the
Isndhills south Q; SAP Francisco
OF the ranuneulaeess which appear