The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-17
January Woods.


and there are delicious hints of the COM
ing springtime in The midday air. Here
on the bank amid tangle of ferns and
toadstoos, L have found tiny spray of
the Smilacina stellata, so-cal!ed false
Solomon's SEAL" IN reality very thor
oughly individual member of the lily fam
lily, that we are to blame for characteriz-
ing as false" Wake-robin, too, is begin
ming to unfurI its broad leaves, and the
dainty little parsley is peeping up from
the EARTH wild potato," the country
folk call it. In q week or two its meek
white flowers will dot the canyons and
marshy fields, The bulbs and tubers are
always the earliest spring flowers to ap-
pear. They are thrifty folk, and when
summer begins to wane they make pro-
vision for the young plant by storing up,
under ground, q supply of food for the
next season. start. The young Solomon's
seal does not have to wait, before blossom
ing until it can accumulate sufficient sub
stance from soil and air and water to put
forth its dainty bells. 1t gathers susie
nance from its thick tuber-like rootstock,
and obtains luxuriant growth while yet
its less provldent companions. the an
nuals, are getting a frail hold on life. So
we have the wild hyacinth and the tril-
lium, the peoples and the blue-eyed grass
marching at the head of the floral process
sion each season.
1t is interesting 10 study the methods of
self-preservation which each plant finds
out and avails itself Of there is such per-
feet adaptation OF means TO the end. The
bulbs and tubers, for instance, the wake
robin, Solomon's seal and the little white
spring beauty are very delicate plants, re-
curing large supplies OF air and water.
A little later in the season, when the sum-
mer vegetation is at its greatest luxuri-
ance, the supply will not be sufficient for
them. They would have small chance for
life if they did not get this early start. and
would be choked and crushed and starved
out of existence by the harder late
corners. So they store up a supply OF
starchy substances, not as do the trees and
shrubs, in thick covering of bark, but
under ground, where it will be free from
the depredations of gnawing dents, who,
as well as the plants, like little starch
now and then, and feel the need of win
ter food supply. With the aid OF this
supply the plants begin growing early in
the season, and have attained to vigorous
development before the arrival of the
floral crowd. Still another variety of pro-
tective measure is exhibited by the wild
gooseberry, with It's delicate pink whips of
branches, where the dainty leafbuds are
just beginning to swell. The gooseberry
stores up its nutritlVe supplies in its slen-
der woody stalks, and the gophers, the
woodrats and the spermophiles know it.
Their sharp little teeth would soon end
the life of the plant were it not for the
forest of formidable little thorns that grows
along the stem and make every branch of
the gooseberry a scourge for the unwary.
These thorns protect the plants foliage,
100. The leaves come out early in the
spring, when most creatures are hungry
for a little fresh salad, and the bushes
would soon be stripped were it not for the
spikey guardians that even human visit
ors find it difficult to overcome. The
only creatures for whom the thorns have
no terrors are the fertilizing insects and
the birds, who later on eat the fruit and
disseminate the seeds.
The mischief wrought by small, hungry,
gnawing teeth may be seen in the red
woods everywhere about me here in the
canyon. This is not the forest primeval.
That fell years ago before the ak and saw
of the early woodsmen; but these trees
are from fifteen to twenty years old. They
grow straight and beautiful, sending out
their dropping branches in symmetrical
whorls 20 height of thirty feet or more,
when every tree suddenly divides and
sends up two shoots instead of the single
royal mast the woodsman seeks. They
will never make hrst-class timber, for
years before little vandal woodrats gnaw-
ing the bark compelled the tree in repair
ing the mischief to grow double instead of
maintaining its original singleness of pur-
pose. This is the lowest level at which
redwoods grow, and these fifteen-year-old
trees are still mere saplings; but there are
yet some mighty stumps remaining in
these woods to show what woodland
giants once sheltered this sparkling
stream. A half mile below US the red
woods suddenly cease and only the green
bay tree iourishes, just now in a stormy
fragrance OF blossom; and lower still the
alders grow, giving place i'll their turn to
great oaks and huge sycamores, sturdy
giants of the lower streamsde. Just now
the sycamores are bare and hoary, stretch
ing out mighty battle-scarred arms toward
the sky, pointing and reckoning the be-
holder onward and seeming to demand of
every passer-by the question of the wise
old stole, who is he that shall hinder
thee from being good aud simpler The
oaks, too, have not the brooding, mystic
pc autv of the redwoods the shining SPLEEN
dor of the laurels nor the slim grace of the
alders, but they have a wondruus indi-
yidua, charm that is all their own. Mighty
growths they are, TOO. One hoary mon
arch, standing just where the canyon
widens to the plain, spreads out it's huge
age-twisted branches to a span of ninety
feet.
Growing everywhere along the banks,
and close down to the waters edge, clam
boring over scrub-oak and willows, cover
ing ferns and winding about stumps,
grows the vetch getting, like its liliace-
Gus comrades, an early start. A member
of the great pulse family is the vetch,
and as much of a trial is the former in
this day as ii was at the time when, Scrip
lure tells us, the enemy sowed it while the
husbandman slept. For the vetch is the
ancient tare. a nuisance wherever it gets
a foothold. 1t is feeble clinging thing,
with frail stem that could never hold
itself up did it not send out at intervals
little clinging tendrils. really highly
specialized leaves that catch and cling
here to blade of grass, there to the wav-