Melilotus parviflora, Desf. Pea Family.
Hab.—Widely naturalized from Europe.
In early summer the breezes come laden with fragrance from the sweet clover. This is easily recognized by its tall stems, its fragrant leaves, with three small, toothed leaflets, and its small crowded racemes of minute yellow flowers a line long.
A white form—Melilotus alba, Lam.—is found in the north. Its flowers are vanilla-scented.
This plant is a highly valued remedy in the pharmacopœia for various ailments, and its sweet-scented flowers have been used for flavoring many products, such as Gruyère cheese, snuff, and tobacco. In Europe the blossoms are packed among furs to give them a pleasant odor and keep away moths.
CALIFORNIAN COMPASS-PLANT. SUNFLOWER.
Wyethia angustifolia, Nutt. Composite Family.
Stems.—Six inches to two feet high. Leaves.—Long-lanceolate; pointed at both ends; the radical and lower ones six to twelve inches long; the upper sessile, shorter, and often broader. Flower-heads.—Yellow; composed of ray- and disk-flowers. Plume-like styles of the latter conspicuous. Ray flowers.—Numerous; one inch long; six lines wide; early deciduous. Involucre.—Broadly campanulate, of numerous erect, loose, foliaceous, ciliate scales, in several rows. Hab.—Monterey, east to the Sierra foothills and north to Oregon.
In late spring our open plains and hillsides are often plentifully sown with the large golden flowers of these Californian compass-plants, called "sunflowers" by many people. There is a belief prevalent that their erect leaves always stand with their edges pointing north and south, whence the common name. This trait is said to be true of all the species.
W. helenioides, Nutt., has large, broad leaves, which are white-woolly when young. Its flower-heads are often four inches or more across.