Encelia Californica, Nutt. Composite Family.
Bushy; two to four feet high; strong-scented. Leaves.—Mostly alternate; short-petioled; ovate-lanceolate; an inch or two long. Flower-heads.—Solitary; long-peduncled; large. Disk.—Eight lines across; of black-purple, tubular flowers, with deep-yellow styles. Rays.—Sterile; over an inch long; five lines wide; four-toothed. Involucre.—Open-campanulate of several series of coriaceous, imbricated scales. Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.
This shrubby Composita is quite abundant in the south, and when covered with its large yellow flowers with purple-brown centers is very showy. We have seen mesas covered with the bushes, which have much the same spreading habit as the white marguerite of the garden. It thrives particularly well near the coast, but is also at home upon some of the hills of interior valleys as well. It is quite strong-scented, but the flowers are very handsome, rivaling in decorativeness many of the cherished plants of our gardens.
YELLOW FORGET-ME-NOT. WOOLLY-BREECHES.
Amsinckia, Lehm. Borage Family.
Hispid annuals. Leaves.—Alternate; oblong-ovate to linear. Flowers.—Small; yellow or orange, in coiled spikes or racemes. Calyx.—Five-parted; persistent. Corolla.—Salver-shaped, or somewhat funnel-form; with five-lobed border; the throat naked or with minute hairy tufts opposite the lobes. Stamens.—Five. Ovary.—Of four seedlike nutlets. Style filiform. Stigma capitate.
We have several species of Amsinckia, all of which have small yellow flowers, resembling in form our little white forget-me-nots. The genus is a Western American one, and the species are very difficult of determination. They are all hispid plants, very disagreeable to handle, and are generally of rank growth. They often occur in great masses, when they become rather showy.
The largest-flowered species, which is also the most common one in the south, is A. spectabilis, Fisch. and Mey. The corolla of this is often half an inch long and half an inch across, of an orange-yellow, with deeper orange spots in the throat.