Eriogonum umbellatum, Torr. Buckwheat Family.

Leaves.—All radical; obovate to oblong-spatulate; two inches or less long; mostly smooth above; sometimes woolly below. Scapes.—Three to twelve inches high. Flowers.—Sulphur-yellow; two or three lines long; many contained in each little top-shaped involucre, on threadlike stems. Involucres.—Two lines or so long; deeply cleft, the lobes becoming reflexed. Perianth.—Six-parted. Stamens.—Nine. Ovary.—Triangular; one-celled. Styles.—Three. Stigmas capitate. Hab.—Mountains of Middle and Northern California, and eastward.

Large companies of the sulphur-flower may be seen in the Sierras in July and August, where it covers open, dry, rocky slopes, making brilliant masses of color.

Growing with this is often found another species—E. ursinum, Wats.—with flowers of a beautiful translucent cream-color, often tinged with pink.

WILD BOUVARDIA.

Gilia grandiflora, Gray. Phlox or Polemonium Family.

Stems.—Erect; a foot or two high. Leaves.—Two or three inches long; linear or oblong-lanceolate; sessile. Flowers.—Salmon-color; crowded at the summit of the stem. Calyx.—With obconic tube and broad, obtuse lobes. Corolla.—Narrowly funnel-form, with tube an inch long, and five-lobed border almost as broad. (See Gilia.) Hab.—Widely distributed.

This plant was formerly placed in the genus Collomia; but that genus was not well founded, and all its species have now been transferred to Gilia. From the resemblance of its showy buff or salmon-colored flowers to the Bouvardias of our gardens, these plants are popularly known as "wild Bouvardia." The blossoms are found in early summer, and grow usually in dry places, exposed to the sun.

[SULPHUR-FLOWER—Eriogonum umbellatum.]