A rather attractive plant, for the foliage is pretty, though the flowers are not very conspicuous. The rather stout, roughish stem, often purplish, is from one to two feet tall and the leaves are rather dark green, slightly sticky and sometimes downy. The flowers are about half an inch across, with white petals, tinged with pink, and are well set off by the dark reddish or purplish calyxes and buds, but the petals are too far apart, and there are not enough flowers out at one time, for the effect to be good. This varies a good deal in hairiness and there are several varieties. It is common in Yosemite.
Pussy-tails—Stellariopsis santolinoides.
Horkelia fusca.
There are several kinds of Cowania.
Cliff Rose
Cowània Stansburiàna
Yellow
Spring, summer
Southwest
Altitude and soil make a great difference in the beauty of this shrub. On the rocky rim of the Grand Canyon it is from four to eight feet high, picturesquely gnarled and twisted, but stunted looking, the gray bark hanging off the crooked branches and thick, distorted trunk in untidy shreds, the flowers pale, scanty, and but faintly scented. Halfway down Bright Angel trail it is a glorious thing, full of color and fragrance, about twelve feet high, luxuriant and healthy-looking. The small, leathery, evergreen leaves, crowded in bunches along the branches, are glossy and rich in color, setting off the light yellow flowers, with golden centers, which form long wands of bloom. The upper branches are clustered closely their whole length with blossoms, and when the wind sways the flowering branches to and fro they exhale an exquisite fragrance like orange flowers. The bloom is at its best in the Canyon in May, but there are still some lingering flowers in August. The calyx is top-shaped, with the petals and the two rows of numerous stamens on the throat of the tube. The pistils, from five to twelve, are densely woolly. The akenes have pale, silky-hairy tails, two inches or more in length, suggesting gone-to-seed Clematis. For some occult reason this shrub is called Quinine Bush at the Grand Canyon.
There are two kinds of Aruncus, resembling Spiraea; with small white flowers, the stamens and pistils in separate flowers on different plants. Aruncus is a word used by Pliny to designate a goat's beard.
Goat's Beard
Arúncus sylvéster
(Spiraea aruncus)
White
Summer
Northwest, etc.
A pretty plant, from three to seven feet high, with somewhat branching stems and smooth leaves, thin in texture. The minute, cream-white flowers are crowded closely along the many sprays which make up the very loose cluster, which is about a foot long, the effect of the whole being exceedingly airy and graceful and in fine contrast to the handsome foliage. This grows in mountain woods, across the continent and in Europe and Asia.
