C. Californicum is a beautiful form, with pointed, ovate leaves, of a light glaucous green, often tinged with pink. Its flowers are yellow, and have their petals distinct almost to the base, and its carpels are distinct. We are told that the Indians make soothing poultices of these leaves.
[HEN-AND-CHICKENS—Cotyledon Californicum.]
![[HEN-AND-CHICKENS—Cotyledon Californicum.]](#3624944100741987669_f049.png.id-3460996673605607883.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Another species—C. pulverulenta, Benth. and Hook.,—found from Santa Barbara to San Diego, is a very beautiful plant. It bears its leaves in a symmetrical rosette, like a diminutive century-plant. These leaves are usually covered with a dense white bloom, and the outer ones are spatulate, abruptly pointed, and two to four inches broad at the tip, while the inner are pointed. The plants are sometimes a foot and a half across, and send up as many as eight of the leafy flowering stems, which look like many-storied, slender Chinese pagodas. The blossoms are pale-red.
BLADDERPOD.
Isomeris arborea, Nutt. Caper Family.
Shrubby; evil-scented. Leaves.—Alternate; compound, with three leaflets. Flowers.—With their parts in fours. Petals.—Yellow; five to eight lines long. Stamens.—Eight; of equal length. Ovary.—One-celled. Style short. Pod.—Pendulous; inflated; pear-shaped; on a long stalk. Hab.—Santa Barbara to San Diego.
This low shrub is somewhat plentiful upon the mesas of the south. Its yellow flowers attract one to it, only to be repulsed by the dreadful odor of its foliage. It certainly ought to have some compensating utility for so repellent a characteristic. The ovary is so long-stalked, even in the flower, that it looks like an abnormal, inflated stigma.
This is the only species of the genus.