VOL. I.] Lavatera. 189 
The following responses to letters of inquiry enclosing specimens 
of Lavatera assurgentiflora have been received: 
From Father O'Keefe, O. S. F., Superior of the Mission at Santa 
Barbara: 
“Your favor of the 16th inst., with leaf, flower and seed of ‘ Malva 
rosa’ received in due time. In answer I beg leave to state that, al- 
though I believe it was brought by some of the Fathers, or by Don 
José de Galvez, who ordered seed of every kind of fruit, flower and 
vegetable to be packed for the new missions, in 1768, yet there is no 
special authentic record of this particular plant, at least I have not 
yet seen any stating by whom it was brought.’” * * #* 
Father José Godiol, O. S. F., now stationed at Watsonville, who 
has been a much longer time in California, writes: 
* * * “Tn regard to what you ask me about the enclosed 
plant, I say to you that you may be assured that it, with many oth- 
ers, was imported to this country of California by the Franciscan 
Fathers at the time of the conquest of this country. This is well 
authenticated by the old Padres‘and old men of this country.” 
The Californian nativity of Lavatera has always been doubted, 
and nearly every botanist who has dealt with the genus has felt called 
upon to mention the similarity of our species to some of those of the 
old world. It lacks entirely that expression of harmony with the 
environment which we are accustomed to see in plants unquestion- 
ably indigenous. JL. assurgentiflora, the species to which the above 
letters refer, is very widely distributed. It is cultivated in gardens 
as an ornamental flowering plant as far north as Mendocino County 
and through the interior valley and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, 
and plants of apparently great age are to be found about most of 
the old missions and cemeteries. It is reported as growing abund- 
antly in certain places in Texas, and Mr. J. R. Scupham has in his 
garden in Oakland plants of large size, the seed of which is said to - 
have come from somewhere in South America. 
Plants from the sea coast and from the islands differ notably from 
the form usually seen in the interior, being stouter, with more and 
much larger leaves, and larger flowers and fruit. The lower half of the 
corolla is often white, veined with rose, answering almost exactly 
to the description of those of Z. venosa (as given in Garden and 
Forest, iii, 379), which appears to be hardly more than a geograph- 
ical variety of the former. 
