GROUND-PINK. FRINGED GILIA.
Gilia dianthoides, Endl. Phlox or Polemonium Family.
One to six inches high. Leaves.—Six lines or so long; linear to filiform. Flowers.—Rose or lilac, blending inward to white, with darker color or yellow in the throat. Calyx.—Five-cleft. Corolla.—Nine to twelve lines across; fringed. (See Gilia.) Hab.—From Santa Barbara to San Diego.
In March our southern meadows and hill-slopes are all aglow with the lovely flowers of this charming little Gilia. The plants are tiny, often no more than an inch high, but are ambitious out of all proportion to their size, covering themselves with blossoms exquisitely delicate in texture, form, and coloring, which literally carpet the earth with an overlapping mosaic.
It is a wonderful thought that upon every one of these countless millions of little flowers that clothe the fields Nature has bestowed such care that each is a masterpiece in itself.