The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-02
CALIFORNIA WILD FLOWERS
IN THE CANYONS AND MOUN-
 TAINS.
The Profuse Variety of Beautiful Bloom That Adorns the Land of Sunshine.

Sunshine.
 One of my first delights was to find
 my grandmother's garden transferred bodily to the Arroyo. The southernwoOd and 'larkspurs, gillias, Missouri cur
 rants and peonies. The currant was
 without odor and the peony was not gorgeously befounced in pink or crim-
 son silk petticoats, but l think I had
 never been half so pleased to see her as when I found her at home, We know that all cultivated plants grow wild somewhere but that makes the sur prise of finding them in their native haunts none the less pleasant. Another such pleasure was the finding of the
 honeysuckle on the top of one of the lower mountains near Strawberry val ley. It was like our cultivated Japan csc honeysuCkle, except that 1t was smaller and odorless. In fact we have little that is not odrlesos, and little wild fruit but that is tasteless. Goosaberries and entrants, raspberries and straw berries are equally dry and insipid, We found some wild roses, however, in Pudding st one canyon, few miles this side of Pomona, which filled the house with their fragrance, surpassing any cultivated rose that I know in it's de- licious and penetrating, spiciness.
 The poppy seems almost too common to mention, but surely the possible joys of a poppy field have not all been sung. I feel an almost personal grievance against people who pick poppies. There seems to be an unwritten law that no one shall take a leaf, and if by chance they do, they reigiously strip it off. Of the hundreds of bouquets which one sees being carried proudly home, to be placed in bright blue vases q have seen them in red) one seldom sees a leaf. The foliage is so exceptionally beauti- ful, and huge bunch of the blossoms without it comes so near being hideous that it seems strange fate that has de- creed that they shall usually be picked that way. A poppy field at noon, at the foot of the hot brown mountains is al- most fierce One sympathizes with the poor invalid who was driven into one of the fields, and cried, "Oh, take me away! Take me out of it. It scalds mel" But late In the afternoon, when 4 the nSHC SnlneS dCTUSS II, WHeH lIe peu- pie are gone, and clouds float across the mountains. and meadowlarks, hid den in flowers and foliage, send forth their songs of rejoicing, then a poppy field is something to thank God for. Hunting for the many shades, from flaming orange to creamy white, is real excitement, but it leaves no tired nerves in it's wake. The poppy order sent an unusual number of delegates to California. There are six genra in this immediate vicinity. The Matilija avoids us but we have the argemon, or prickly poppy, which is almost as beautiful, though not nearly so large, and leaves and stem are covered with most inhospitable spines. The tree rop- py grows in the Arroyo. In fact it is hardly afe to say what doesn't grow in that wonderful Arroyo. The little wind poppy is very shy. but we have spied it once.
 The first year or two that we were here, we thought it very wonderful to be in a country literally carpeted with flowers, but we had a doubt whether in the very profusion, there was not a lack A basketful of long-stemmed, yellow violets was riches surely. but was 1t the rare good fortune that it was to come upon one little, pale lowered plant in the Massachusetts woods? But We have learned since that generous as California usually is she is as stingy with some of her treasure as any other part of the country. There surely is a charm in rarity. If one analyses it. there is suspicion that it is related to selfshness, but a charm there certainly is. Such rare delight was ours in Lily canyon. We had come to one of those great masses of rock which is simply irresistible. So up and over we climbed, and there below us, on the edge of a -bottomed pool, was an orchid--the first we had seen in California. Even the memory of it's gives me a pleasant l thrill Of all our beautiful canyons there are none, think quite so beauti- ful as Lily canyon. It is so narrow that | 1t Is hardly more than a cleft in the | mountain side, and so steep that nearly | every step is a climb, and through it | tumbles a mountain brook. Wherever | there is room between the stream and | the rocky canyon side are great masses of ragrant aZaleas, from six to twelve i feet high, often so covered with bloom . as to quite conceal the leaves. Just a gold touched cloud lodged in the moun- { tain cleft. That would seem enough for one small canyon, but it isn't all In it's shady recesses, choosing for it's setting a bank of dark green foliage or mass of azaleas is the lemon lilly. It's stalks are from one or two to six feet tall, crowned with great clusters of lemon- colored lilies, large as our Easter lilies AS far as I can learn, it is quite confin- ed to the moist, shady hooks of the San Jacinto and San Bernardino noun tains
 Another of our lilies, modest as this is gay. is the little brown lily, or chocolate bells which hides on our shaded hill- sides. We have felt that fortune smiled for us when we have found one or two stalks, but one rare day we picked 29 clusters. Growing they are incon- spicuous, but they make a beautiful bouquet, for they are grace itself, and the rich chocolate brown bells are very aginst light back ground But most beloved of all our lilies are the mariposas, and the belle of them all, here in the south at least. is the mariposa of our hills. The later splendens, of sunny mountain .la a.,a yI...,.N