The mountains of California . this wild fruit withcommendable appreciation of its superior flavor,while their home orchards were full of ripe peaches,apricots, nectarines, and figs, and their vineyardswere laden with grapes. But, though these luxuri-ant, shaggy river-beds were thus distinct from thesmooth, treeless plain, they made no heavy divid-ing lines in general views. The whole appeared asone continuous sheet of bloom bounded only by themountains. When I first saw this central garden, the mostextensive and regular of all the bee-pastures of theState, it seemed all one sheet of plant gold
The mountains of California . this wild fruit withcommendable appreciation of its superior flavor,while their home orchards were full of ripe peaches,apricots, nectarines, and figs, and their vineyardswere laden with grapes. But, though these luxuri-ant, shaggy river-beds were thus distinct from thesmooth, treeless plain, they made no heavy divid-ing lines in general views. The whole appeared asone continuous sheet of bloom bounded only by themountains. When I first saw this central garden, the mostextensive and regular of all the bee-pastures of theState, it seemed all one sheet of plant gold, hazyand vanishing in the distance, distinct as a newmap along the foot-hills at my feet. Descending the eastern slopes of the Coast Rangethrough beds of gilias and lupines, and aroundmany a breezy hillock and bush-crowned headland,I at length waded out into the midst of it. Allthe ground was covered, not with grass and greenleaves, but with radiant corollas, about ankle-deepnext the foot-hills, knee-deep or more five or six. A BEE-RANCH IN LOWER CALIFORNIA. 342 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA miles out. Here were baliia, madia, madaria, bur-rielia, cliiysopsis, corethrogyiie, grindelia, etc.,growing in close social congregations of variousshades of yellow, blending finely with the purplesof clarkia, orthocarpus, and Oenothera, whose deli-cate petals were drinking the vital sunbeams with-out giving back any sparkling glow. Because so long a period of extreme droughtsucceeds the rainy season, most of the vegetationis composed of annuals, which spring up simultane-ously, and bloom together at about the same heightabove the ground, the general surface being butslightly ruffled by the taller phacelias, pentstemons,and groups of Salvia carduacea, the king of the mints. Sauntering in any direction, hundreds of thesehappy sun-plants brushed against my feet at everystep, and closed over them as if I were wading inliquid gold. The air was sweet with fragrance, thelarks sang their blessed s
Size: 1278px × 1955px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcaliforniadescriptio
