The most careless observer will some day have his attention startled into activity by a certain tall, fine plant growing along the roadside, bearing beautiful, ragged blue flowers closely set to its stem. This is a stranger from over the seas, whose native home is England; and, like all English, it is an excellent colonist, having pushed its way into most parts of the civilized world. It has become quite plentiful among us in the last few years, and whole fields may often be seen covered with its lovely bright-blue blossoms, which are known as "ragged sailors," and "wild bachelor's-buttons." They open in the early morning, closing by midday. In Europe a popular belief is rife that they open at eight o'clock in the morning and close at four in the afternoon.

[COMMON MILKWEED—Asclepias Mexicana.]

"On upland slopes the shepherds mark The hour when, to the dial true, Cichorium to the towering lark Lifts her soft eye, serenely blue."

The plant is useful in several ways. Its root is boiled and eaten as a vegetable; the leaves, when blanched, make an excellent salad; and the whole plant was formerly employed in medicine, and is still considered a valuable remedy for jaundice. But the most common use of it is as a substitute for coffee, or as an adulterant of it. The fleshy, milky root is dried, ground, and roasted, and though it has neither the essential oil nor the delicious aroma of coffee, it is not an unpleasant beverage, and its cheapness brings it within the reach of the very poor.

The chicory industry has grown to be of considerable importance in California of late. The plants are grown in reclaimed tule land near Stockton, where there is a factory for the conversion of the root into the commercial article.

CALIFORNIAN LOBELIA.

Downingia pulchella, Torr. Lobelia Family.

Stems.—Three to six inches high. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; linear; obtuse; passing into flower-bracts above. Flowers.—Racemose; blue. Calyx-tube.—Very long and slender; adnate to the ovary; its limb of five slender divisions. Corolla.—With short tube and bilabiate border. The smaller lip of two narrow spreading or recurved divisions; the larger three-lobed; broader than long; nine or ten lines by five or six lines. All the lobes intense blue; the large centers mostly white. Stamens.—Five; united into a curved tube. Capsule.—Splitting at the sides. Hab.—Nearly throughout the State.

These little lobeliaceous plants are very common, especially upon the plains of the interior, and may be found growing in wet places, where they often make the ground blue. The showy, white-centered flowers are familiar along the roadsides upon the borders of puddles. The blossoms, which are really stemless, appear to have stems of considerable length, owing to the very long, slender ovary and calyx-tube. They are cultivated for ornament under the name of Clintonia pulchella.