Upon the ground about these shrubs may usually be found the skeletons of old branches. These are hollow cylinders of woody basket-work, which are quite symmetrical and pretty.
O. serpentina, Engelm., found at San Diego, and often growing with the above, resembles it somewhat, but may be known by its much longer spines, which are from three to nine inches long, and by its greenish-yellow flowers. The plants are usually found near the seashore and scattered—i.e. never forming thickets.
Upon the sea-coast at San Diego is found another plant similar to the above—Cereus Emoryi, Engelm.—the "velvet cactus." Instead of being covered with tubercles, these plants have from sixteen to twenty vertical ribs, upon which are borne the bunches of slender spines. These spines are from a quarter of an inch to one and three quarters inches long, and without barbs. The flowers are greenish-yellow, and not particularly pretty or attractive.
SCARLET BUGLER.
Pentstemon centranthifolius, Benth. Figwort Family.
Very glaucous and smooth. Stem.—One to three feet high. Leaves.—Ovate-lanceolate; mostly sessile; the upper cordate-clasping; thick. Panicles.—Narrow; a foot or two long. Corolla.—Bright scarlet; an inch or more long; hardly bilabiate. (See Pentstemon.) Hab.—From Monterey to Los Angeles.
The tall spires of the scarlet bugler are such familiar sights along southern roadsides and sandy washes that people almost forget the enthusiastic admiration their bright beauty first elicited. It is said that acres of mountain lands are sometimes a solid mass of vermilion during the blooming season of this lovely plant.
The panicle is often two feet long, with its string of scarlet horns. The individual flowers bear quite a likeness to those of the honeysuckle, common in Eastern gardens, and by those who encounter the plant for the first time, it is usually spoken of as "honeysuckle." The blossoms are sometimes yellow near San Bernardino.
P. Bridgesii, Gray, met more frequently in the Yosemite than elsewhere, though it occurs in the Sierras from the Yosemite southward, is a very similar plant to the above. But it differs in having its corolla quite distinctly bilabiate, though of the same general tubular, funnel-form shape.