BEACH-ASTER.

Erigeron glaucus, Ker. Composite Family.

Six to twelve inches high, having a tuft of radical leaves and some ascending stems. Leaves.—Obovate or spatulate-oblong; one to four inches long; pale; somewhat succulent; slightly viscid. Flower-heads.—Composed of dull-yellow disk-flowers and bright-violet ray-flowers. Disk.—Eight lines or so across. Rays.—Six or eight lines long; narrow; numerous; in several rows. Hab.—The Coast, from Oregon to Southern California.

Almost anywhere upon our Coast, "within the roar of a surf-tormented shore," we can find the beautiful blossoms of the beach-aster. We may know them by their resemblance to the China asters of our gardens, though they are not so large. They present a most delightful combination of color in their old-gold centers, violet rays, and rather pale foliage.

TOAD-FLAX.

Linaria Canadensis, Dumont. Figwort Family.

Stems.—Slender; six inches to two feet high. Leaves.—Mostly alternate on the flowering stems, but smaller and broader ones often opposite or whorled on the procumbent shoots; linear; smooth. Flowers.—Blue; in terminal racemes; like those of Antirrhinum, but the tube furnished with a long, downward-pointing spur at base. Hab.—Throughout California.

The delicate blue flowers of the toad-flax are not uncommon in spring, and the plants are usually found in sandy soil. The little blossoms are very ethereal and have a sweet perfume. I once saw a deep blue band upon a mesa near San Diego, which vied in richness with the ultramarine of the sea just beyond. It stretched for some distance, and at last curved around and crossed the road over which I was passing, when it proved to be made up of millions of these delicate flowers. The color effect seemed cumulative, for the mass was so much richer and deeper than the individual flowers.

[BEACH-ASTER—Erigeron glaucus.]