Another species—V. Thapsus, L.—is also quite common. In the Sacramento Valley its tall, woolly tapers may be seen leaning in every direction, giving the fields a disorderly appearance. This plant abounds throughout Europe and Asia, and was well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who made lampwicks of its dried leaves and utilized its stalks, dipped in tallow, for funeral torches. In medieval Europe it was called "hag-taper," because it was employed by witches in their incantations. In Europe at the present time it is known as the "American velvet-plant," because of a mistaken idea that it is a native of this country.
WESTERN GOLDENROD.
Solidago occidentalis, Nutt. Composite Family.
Smooth throughout. Stems.—Paniculately branched; two to six feet high. Leaves.—Linear; entire; obscurely three-nerved; two to four inches long; one to three lines wide. Flower-heads.—In numerous small, flat clusters, terminating the slender branchlets; three lines long; yellow. Rays.—Sixteen to twenty not surpassing the eight to fourteen disk-flowers. Involucre.—Of imbricated scales; the outer successively shorter. Hab.—Near the Coast, from Southern California to British America.
The Western goldenrod, with its slender, willowy stems and small flower-clusters, may be found in wet places in late summer and early autumn. Its blossoms are acacia-scented.
CREOSOTE-BUSH. GOBERNADORA. HIDEONDO.
Larrea Mexicana, Moricand. Creosote-Bush Family.
Ill-smelling, resinous shrubs, four to ten feet high; diffusely branched. Leaves.—Opposite; with two unequal leaflets. Leaflets.—Three to six lines long; pointed; sessile. Flowers.—Solitary; yellow. Sepals.—Five; silky; deciduous. Petals.—Five; three or four lines long. Stamens.—Ten; on a small ten-lobed disk. Filaments winged below. Ovary.—Five-celled; Style slender. Hab.—Inland deserts of the southern part of the State.
The most plentiful shrub growing in our southern desert regions is the creosote-bush, so called because its sticky leaves burn with a black smoke and a rank odor, between creosote and carbolic acid.
These shrubs often cover vast tracts of arid soil, and in places are the only growth to be seen. The evergreen foliage is of a warm olive tone, and is borne at the ends of many slender, grayish branches. The small, stemless, opposite leaves, each divided almost to its base into two leaflets, spread butterfly-like upon the slender branchlets. The leaf-nodes are swollen into small, warty prominences, which are especially resinous.