F. pudica, Spreng., found on the eastern slopes of the Sierras, has solitary yellow flowers.
F. liliacea, Lindl., is our only white species. This is found upon the hills of San Francisco and in the Sacramento Valley. It has a whorl of leaves near the ground and two or three greenish-white, nodding flowers. It is exceedingly local.
LARGE-FLOWERED PHACELIA.
Phacelia grandiflora, Gray. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.
Coarse, glandular-viscid plants; one to three feet high. Leaves.—Round-ovate; irregularly toothed; sometimes three or four inches long. Flowers.—Lavender to white; variously streaked and veined with purple. Corolla.—Rotate; two inches across; without scalelike appendages in the throat. Filaments.—Long; purple. Anthers large; versatile. Style two-cleft. (See Phacelia.) Hab.—From Santa Barbara to San Diego.
This is the largest-flowered of all our Phacelias. Its tall stems are abundantly covered above with the fine-looking blossoms. These are very attractive to the uninitiated, who usually rushes forward in breathless haste to possess himself of these new-found treasures and is rarely satisfied with less than a large bunch of them. But woe lies in wait for him. The innumerable glands, covering the whole plant, readily yield up their viscid fluid, which in a few moments turns everything with which it comes in contact to a deep red-brown, like iron-rust. If he escape with ruined clothing, and hands the color of a red Indian, he will have come off well—for the plant poisons some people.
Another species—P. viscida, Torr.—found in about the same range as the above, resembles it closely. It is a foot or so high, branching from the base, and has blue flowers, with purple or white centers, and only half the size of the above.
VIOLET NIGHTSHADE.
Solanum Xanti, Gray. Nightshade Family.
Herbaceous nearly to the base; viscid-pubescent, with jointed hairs. Stems.—Several feet high. Leaves.—Two inches or less long; sometimes with lobes at the base; thin. Flowers.—An inch or so across. Calyx.—Five-parted. Corolla.—Violet, with green spots ringed with white at the base. Stamens.—Five. Filaments short. Anthers erect; opening terminally. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style filiform; exserted. Berries.—Purple; six lines in diameter. Hab.—Throughout California.