Whipplea modesta, Torr. Saxifrage Family.

Slender, diffuse, hairy undershrubs. Leaves.—Opposite; short-petioled; ovate; toothed or entire; an inch or less long; three-nerved. Flowers.—White; barely three lines across; in small terminal clusters. Calyx.—White; five-cleft. Petals.—Five. Stamens.—Usually ten. Filaments awl-shaped. Ovary.—Three- to five-celled, globose. Styles of the same number. Hab.—Coast Ranges from Monterey to Mendocino County.

Under the redwoods, or in moist cañons in their vicinity, may be found this pretty undershrub trailing over banks or brushwood. In April its exquisite little clusters of pure white flowers, with a pleasant fragrance, make their appearance, and the plants have then been sometimes mistaken for a species of Ceanothus.

WOODLAND STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

Tellima affinis, Bolander. Saxifrage Family.

Stems.—Slender; six to twenty inches high. Root-leaves.—Round-reniform; scalloped; rarely an inch across. Stem-leaves.—Three to five; ternately cleft; variously toothed. Flowers.—White; in a loose raceme; nine lines across. Calyx.—Small; campanulate; five-toothed. Petals.—Five; wedge-shaped, with three acute lobes. Stamens.—Ten. Filaments very short. Ovary.—One-celled. Styles, three, short, stout. Stigmas, capitate. Hab.—Shady places almost throughout the State.

"Star of Bethlehem" is the common name by which many of our children know this fragile flower. Its slender stems rise from many a mossy bank, upbearing their few delicately slashed, pure-white stars, which seem to shed a gentle radiance about them upon the woodland scene.

[WHIPPLEA—Whipplea modesta.]

WILD BUCKWHEAT.