Great Nature, lend an ear while we, The feathered fowls of air, From mead and furrow, bush and tree, From pool and mountain, shore and sea, With one accord pour forth to thee Our earnest cry and prayer. From lime and net, from gin and snare, And from those vile decoys That slay their thousands unaware, We pray thee save us, and declare Thy wrath against what man soe’er Such evil means employs. Chasten, correct and scourge the boys Who count it nobly done To turn to grief our marriage joys, To take our precious eggs for toys, And bear away with mocking noise The spoil so foully won. But most from men that use the gun, That engine of ill scope, For refuge unto thee we run; They march to slay us in the sun, And through the dark, which others shun, Their murderous way they grope. Lastly, we pray thee, on the Pope Prevail to let us be; We would not hang him in a rope, And have as good a right, we hope, Unstrangled under heaven’s high cope, To live our lives as he. —Henry Johnstone. CALIFORNIA POPPIES. A flower of the South and the Sun, Sown upon limitless plains; Fed by the death of the summer grasses, Watered by winter rains. When the wild spring streams are running, She raises her head and cries, “Blow off my emerald cap, good wind, And the yellow hair out of my eyes!” And a fair fine lady she stands, And nods to the dancing sea, O the rose you have trained is a lovely slave, But the wild gold poppy is free! —Camilla K. von K. Spring in California—soft, warm, full and bounteous. Birds twittering and building nests everywhere. In February the poppies bloom in splendor, and no season of the year is so beautiful, so radiant with glory as the poppy time. Coming after a spell of rainy weather, when the mists have lifted from the face of nature, they usher in the long summer. In California the interest centering in the poppy is universal, and it is the most beautiful of California’s flora. It is the favorite flower, being the State flower, suggestive in color, divine in inspiration and poetry, besides the precious gold and orange to be found in this land. The naturalist Adalbert von Chamisso arrived at San Francisco in 1816 on the ship Rurick. Seeing the poppy for the first time, he christened it Eschscholtzia (esh-sholts-i-a), after Herr Eschscholtz, his friend and companion of the ocean journey. The Spanish people call it El oro de copo (the cup of gold). This poppy grows in portions of Oregon, Arizona and Mexico, but in California it has a beauty such as you can find nowhere else.