PURPLE NEMOPHILA.
Nemophila aurita, Lindl. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.
Stems.—One to three feet long; square; angled; weak; very brittle; with backward-pointing, hooked bristles. Leaves.—All with a dilated, clasping, eared base or winged petiole; above deeply pinnatifid into five to nine oblong or lanceolate, downward-pointing lobes. Corolla.—Violet; an inch or so across. (Otherwise as Nemophila insignis.) Hab.—From San Francisco to San Diego.
[CAT'S-EARS—Calochortus Maweanus.]
![[CAT'S-EARS—Calochortus Maweanus.]](#3624944100741987669_f105.png.id-3616046065640488302.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
The purple Nemophila is most abundant in the south, growing everywhere in early springtime upon hillsides partially shaded. Its long, coarse, hispid stems run riot over small undershrubs or dead or unsightly brushwood, often completely covering them with a mound of foliage thickly sown with the dull-purple flowers.
At first it is difficult to realize that this plant of coarse habit belongs to the sisterhood of baby-eyes, those delicate, ethereal favorites of the springtime. In fact, one's first impression of it is that it is some new species of nightshade. One learns, however, to have a fondness for these blossoms and a growing desire to gather them; but their tangling, quarrelsome habit forbids one, if any other flowers are in question.
It is said that the dark-eyed señoritas of early days decked their ball-dresses with sprays of this flower, which clung gracefully to the thin fabrics.