36 ^ CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



hausted body had been lowered into an unmarked grave. Greene did not find the 

 treasure chest perennially sought by the Conquistadores but he did discover some 

 remarkable endemic plants on the island. In 1887 Joseph LeConte published in 

 the Academy's Bulletin a paper entitled "The Flora of the Coast Islands of Cali- 

 fornia in Relation to Recent Changes of Physical Geography" from the data 

 supplied by Professor Greene, "though the interpretation of [the data] was 

 entirely my own/' says LeConte. 



In addition to Greene's students there was an array of country school teachers 

 and ranchers, wives of miners, and travelers, who corresponded with the Berkeley 

 professor and sent him notable collections. C. C. Marshall was a teacher who 

 collected around Eureka in the mid-1880's. J. B. Hickman taught school at 

 Carneros, in Carneros Canyon, on the Natividad road in the San Miguel Hills 

 and spent his Saturdays and vacations searching the countryside for new plants. 

 Andrea Massena Norton was born at Lanesboro, Susquehanna County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, September 7, 1853, and taught school for twelve years at Gonzales, Monte- 

 rey County, beginning in 1880. He was for part of that period also a member of 

 the County Board of Education. It was J. B. Hickman, a fellow teacher and 

 close friend, who introduced Andrea Norton to the scientia amahilis. The very 

 restricted Eriogonum of the Pinnacles region, and the Monterey County Chori- 

 zanthe that bear his name were but two of his botanical discoveries. 



Some day a historian will tell the story of California's natural history from 

 the vantage point of the ranches where the naturalists foregathered as field bases. 

 There will be Talley's ranch in San Diego County, and Warner's ranch; the 

 Parish ranch near San Bernardino; Duffield's ranch in the Sierra foothills; and 

 the Ricksecker farm in Sonoma County, to mention a few. Lucius Edgar Rick- 

 secker was an entomological collector and a propagator of insects for specialists 

 and cabinet collectors. When not employed as surveyor for Sonoma County, he 

 lived on his farm at Sylvania near the present site of Camp Meeker. He came 

 to California in 1873 after serving as a corporal in the Civil War and maintaining 

 a short residence in Salt Lake City. The insects associated with the sand dunes 

 of Marin County and about San Francisco interested Ricksecker, and he found 

 that his talents for netting unusual forms was profitable. Except for a short 

 residence at Spokane, he lived continuously in the State from 1873 until his death 

 in 1913. To his farm at Sylvania came many Academy members, including Hark- 

 ness, to search for truffles and other fleshy fungi; Harford, for spiders; Rivers, 

 for Lepidoptera and Coleoptera; and Mary Katharine Curran, for plants. 



William C. Bartlett of the San Francisco Bulletin remarked in an article 

 published in the Overland Monthly for December, 1875, that "through the 

 munificence of a single citizen, the Academy of Sciences has been handsomely 

 endowed, and will soon be equipped for effective work." The benefactor will be 

 recognized as James Lick, who gave the property for the erection of the new 

 museum building for the Academy on Market Street, between Fourth and Fifth 

 streets. This new center of activity, with its fine display features for museum 

 exhibits, was the parent of the California Botanical Club, founded on March 7, 

 1891, "in response to a call" from seven Academy members— something still 

 miraculous about that number seven! — Harkness, Behr, Eisen, the Brandegees, 

 To^vnshend and Kate, Mrs. Mary W. Kincaid, and Miss Agnes M. Manning, to 

 bring the Pacific Coast botanists closer together. Ninety-nine signatures appeared 



