MIST-MAIDENS.
Romanzoffia Sitchensis, Bongard. Baby-eyes or Water leaf Family.
Leaves.—Six to eighteen lines across; smooth. Flowers.—White, pink, or purple. Calyx.—Deeply five-parted. Corolla.—Funnel-form; five-lobed; four lines long. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Two-celled. Hab.—Coast Ranges, from Santa Cruz northward.
In appearance these delicate herbs resemble the saxifrages, and they affect much the same sort of places, decking mossy banks and stream borders with their beautiful scalloped leaves and small white flowers.
The genus was named in honor of Nicholas Romanzoff, a Russian nobleman, who, by his munificence, enabled some noted botanists to visit this coast early in the century.
[ MIST-MAIDENS—Romanzoffia Sitchensis.]
![[ MIST-MAIDENS—Romanzoffia Sitchensis.]](#3624944100741987669_f009.png.id-6328450028585170679.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
STRAWBERRY CACTUS.
CALIFORNIAN FISH-HOOK CACTUS. LLAVINA.
Mamillaria Goodridgii, Scheer. Cactus Family.
Oval, fleshy, leafless plants; mostly single, though sometimes clustered; three to five inches long; covered with prominences or tubercles. Tubercles.—Each bearing a flat rosette of short, whitish spines, with an erect, dark, fish-hook-like central one. Flowers.—Small; greenish-white. Outer Sepals.—Fringed. Petals.—About eight; awned. Stamens.—Numerous. Ovary.—One-celled. Stigmas five or six. Fruit.—Scarlet; an inch long. Hab.—San Diego and neighboring islands, and southward.
The dry hill-slopes about San Diego afford the most interesting field accessible to civilization, i.e. within our boundaries, for the gathering and study of the cacti.
Nestling close to the ground, usually under some shrub or vine, you will find the little fish-hook cactus, one of the prettiest and most interesting of them all. Its oval form bristles with the little dark hooks, each of which emanates from a flat star of whitish spines.
The flowers may be found in April or May, but it is more noticeable when in fruit. The handsome scarlet berries, like old-fashioned coral eardrops, protruding from among the thorns, are easily picked out, and they very naturally find their way to one's mouth. Nor is one disappointed in the expectation raised by their brilliant exterior—for the flavor is delicious, though I cannot say it resembles that of the strawberry, as some aver. To me it is more like a fine tart apple.