CHAPARRAL PEA.
Pickeringia montana, Nutt. Pea Family.
Evergreen, much branched, spiny shrubs, four to seven feet high. Leaves.—With from one to three leaflets. Leaflets.—Three to nine lines long. Flowers.—Magenta-colored; solitary; sessile; seven to nine lines long; papilionaceous. Stamens.—All ten distinct. Pod.—One-celled; two inches long. Hab.—The Coast Ranges, from Lake County to San Diego.
Upon wild mountain-slopes where are heard the fluting notes of a certain shy bird that rarely comes near habitations, the chaparral pea often makes dense, impenetrable thickets. It would be impossible to mistake it for any other shrub, with its solitary magenta-colored pea-blossoms, which often cover the bushes with a mass of color. Its green branchlets terminate in long, rigid spines, which are often clothed with small leaves nearly to the end.
Woe to him who tries to penetrate the chaparral when it is composed of this formidable and uncompromising shrub! The result is quite likely to be a humiliating progress upon hands and knees before he can extricate himself, probably with torn garments and scratched visage.