grow along the creeks in the redwoods? And the feathery
blue blossoms of the wild lilac crowding in close thickets up
the hillsides? One of our shrubs is a holiday visitor, the
Christmas-berry, whose bright-red clusters trim your house at that
gay, happy season. The manzanita is another pretty bush, with pink
bells that ripen to small scarlet apples in the fall.

Usually, these and other shrubs cover the hillsides with a thick,
matted tangle of stems and branches almost impossible to get through.
This chaparral, as the Spanish called it, clothes the foot-hills and
mountain sides with a close growth through which deer and bears alone
can travel and make trails or runways. Great stretches of buckthorn in
the north, and of sage-brush in the south, cover the wild lands, while
in the sandy desert tall, prickly cactus, yucca, and mesquite grow
with the sage-brush in the blazing sun.

Only a few of California's wild plants and flowers have been now
called to your notice. But children have sharp eyes, and you will
find many more to inquire about in your vacation days. Then
the blackberries and thimble-berries will be ripe, and the pink
salmon-berry in the redwoods. Perhaps you will look for and dig up the
soaproot, that onion-like bulb of one of the lily family with which
the Indians make a soapy lather to wash their clothes. Let us hope
you will know and keep away from the "poison-oak," the low bush with
pretty red leaves, for its leaves are apt to make your skin swell up
and blister wherever they touch you.

What a long and pleasant story might be told you of our state's real
gardens! Perhaps your teacher will give you an hour to talk about your
home gardens, and to see how much you can tell about them. You may
have flowers the year round, if you live on the coast, or in the warm
valleys where no Jack Frost comes with his icy breath to kill the
tender plants. In such genial climates roses and geraniums bloom all
year, and only rest when the gardener cuts them back; and most of the
shrubs and trees in parks and gardens are always fresh and green.

Florists who raise flowers to sell find that here they can grow the
choicest and finest carnations, roses, and all the garden blossoms you
know so well. Many of these florists deal only in flower-seeds, and
bulbs or roots of the lilies to send to the Eastern states or abroad,
where people greatly prize California flowers.

Plants and trees from all parts of the world thrive here