THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 27

THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

(From the New York Evening Post.') Othek countries may show as great variety of flowers as Southern California, but there is none in which they take such complete possession of tbe land. In perhaps two years out of five the rainfall is insufficient to call out a full parade of the host of beauty ; but iv the other three nearly one-half of the land in winter and early spring is covered with bewildering colour, in which the visitor fiom the East may bearch almost ia vain for old acquaintances. The latest editions of Wood or Grey will be quite useless, and one must be an expert in the science to find one's way through the immense botany ot California. In a few days after the first rain the lately bare plains and hillsides show a greenish tinge. Fine little leaves of various kinds will be found springing, from the ground, but nearly all are lo3t in.a general profusion of. dark green ones, of such shape and delicacy of texture that a cai;ej|sß eye might readily take them for ferns. This is the alfileria, the prevailing flower of the land. Daily the land grows gieener, while the shades of green, varied by the play of sunJight on the slopes and rolling bills, increase inuumber and intensity. Here the colour is soft and there bright ; yonder it rolls in wavy alternations, and yonder it reaches in an unbroken shade where the plain sweeps broad and free. For many weeks green is the only colour, though cold nights may perhaps tinge it with a rusty red. About the last of January a little star-like flower of bluish pink begins to shine along tbe ground. This is the bloom of the alfileria, and swiftly it spreads from tbo southern slopes where it begins and runs from meadow to hilltop. Almost at the same lime a little cream-coloured bell-flower begins to nod from a tall, slender stalk ; another of skyblue soon open 8 beside it ; beneath these a little five-petalled flower of deep pink tries to outshine tbe blossoms of the alfileria ; and above Jhem soon stands the radiant cowslip, with reflexed petals of white, fellow and pink shining behind its purplish ovaries. On every side violets, here of the purest golden hue, and of overpowering fragrance, soon appear in numbers, beyond all conception. Six or seven varieties of clover, all with fine delicate leaves, now unfold flowers of yellow, red and pink. Delicate little crucifers of white and yellow "shine modestly below all these; little cream-coloured flowers on slender scapes look skyward on every side ; while others of purer white, with every variety of pc al, crowd up amoog them. Standing now upon some hillside that commands miles of landscape one is dazzled with a blaze of colour from acres and acres of pink, perfect fields of violets, vast reaches of blue, endless sweeps of white. Upon this— merely the warp of the carpet about to cover the land— the sun fast weaves a woof of splendour. Along the southern slopes of the lower bills soon beams tbe orange light of the poppy, which swiftly kindles the adjacent slopes, then flames along the meadow, and blazes upon the northern hillsides. Tall spires of green, mounting on every side, soon open upon the top into lilies of deep lavender, and the scarlet bracts of the painted cup glow side by bide with the crimson of the cardinal flower. And soon comes

the iiis, w.ith its broad golden eye, fringed with rays of lavender blue, and five varieties of phacelia overwhelm some places with waves of purple, blue, indigo, and whitish pink.' Tbe evening primrose soon drapes tbe lower' slopes with long sheets of brightest yellow, and from the hills above, the rock-rose adds its golden bloom to that of the sorrel and wild alfalfa, until the hills almost outshine the bright ligbt from the slopes and plains. And through all this nods a tulip of the most delicate lavender ; vetches, lupins, and all the members in the wild pea family are pushing and winding their way everywhere in every shade of crimson, purple, and white ; along the ground the crowfoot weaves a mantle of white, through which, amid a thousand comrades, the orthocarpus rears its tufted head of pink. Among all these are mixed a tbousaud other flowers, plenty enough as plenty would be accounted in other countries, but here mere pinpoints on a great map of colours. As the stranger gazes upon this carpet that now covers bill and dale, undulates over the table lands, and robes even the mountain with a brilliancy and breadth of colour that strikes the eye even miles away, be exhausts his vocabulary of superlatives, and goes away imagining he has seen it all. Yet be has seen only the back* ground of an embroidery more varied, more curious and splendid than the carpet upon which it is wrought. Asters bright with ceutce of gold and lavender rays soon shine high above the iris, and a new and larger tulip of deepest yellow rises where its lavender cousin is drooping its lately proud head. New bell-flowers of white and blue and indigo rise above the first, which served merely as ushers to the display, and whole acres ablaze witb the orange of the poppy are fast turning with the indigo of the larkspur. Where the ground was lately aglow with the marigold, and the four-o'clock, the tall penstemon now reaches out a hundred arms full-hung with trumpets of purple and pink. Here the silence rears high its head with fringed corolla of scarlet ; and there the wild gooseberry dazzles the eye with a perfect shower of tubular flowers of the same bright colour. The mi in ul us alone is nlmost enough to colour tbe hills. Half a dozen varieties, some with long, narrow, trumpet-shaped flowers, others with broad flaring mouths ; some tall herbs, and others large shrubs, with varying shades of dark red, light red, orange, cream-colour, and yellow, tbey spangle hill-side, rock-pile, and ravine. Among them the morning glory twines its flowers of purest white, new lupins climb over the old ones, and the trailing vetch festoons rock, and shrub, and tree, with long garlands of crimson, purple, and pink. Meanwhile, the chapparal, which during the long dry season has robed the bills in sombre green, begins te bright3n witb new life ; new leaves adorn the ragged red arms of the manzanita, and among them blow thousands of little urn-shaped flowers of rose-colour and white.