Described in the Miscellaneous Section:—
| Cephalanthera Oregana—Phantom Orchis. | Cypripedium montanum—Mountain Lady's Slipper. |
| Cypripedium Californicum—California Lady's Slipper. | Prosartes Menziesii—Drops of Gold. |
TOOTHWORT. PEPPER-ROOT. SPRING-BLOSSOM.
Dentaria Californica, Nutt. Mustard Family.
Roots.—Bearing small tubers. Stems.—Six inches to two feet high. Root-leaves.—Simple and roundish or with three leaflets. Stem-leaves.—Usually with three to five pinnate leaflets, one to three inches long. Flowers.—White to pale rose-color. Sepals and Petals.—Four. Stamens.—Four long and two short. Ovary.—Two-celled. Style simple. Pod.—Slender; twelve to eighteen lines long. Syn.—Cardamine paucisecta, Benth. Hab.—Throughout the Coast Ranges.
What a rapture we always feel over this first blossom of the year! not only for its own dear sake, but for the hopes and promises it holds out, the visions it raises of spring, with flower-covered meadows, running brooks, buds swelling everywhere, bird-songs, and the air rife with perfumes.
It is like the dove sent forth from the ark, this first tentative blossom, this avant courier of the great army of Crucifers, or cross-bearers, so called because their four petals are stretched out like the four arms of a cross.
It is usually in some sheltered wood that we look for this first shy blossom; but once it has proved the trustworthiness of the skies, it is followed by thousands of its companions, who then come out boldly and star the meadows with their pure white constellations.