BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF H. G. BLOOMER. 165 



the old quarters on Clay Street; he took part in its discussions; he 

 occasionally lectured before it ; and, at odd times, he did duty as a 

 presiding officer. On Jan. 4, 1858, he was elected to be Curator 

 in Botany, and reelected annually from 1859 to 1862. In 1868 

 he was elected Director of the Museum, and served until 1873. 



The subject of of our sketch was the fi-iend of the gentle Kellogg, 

 and that pioneer physician and botanist at an early date expressed 

 his appreciation of Bloomer's devotion to natural history by dedi- 

 cating to him the Liliaceous genus Bloomeria,* consisting of a single 

 species, B, aurea, collected by Dr. J, A. Veatch at New Idria, and 

 for some time cultivated ^ by the Curator in Botany, 



After his death, Dr. Watson, in the second volume of the Botany 

 of California, dedicated to his memory Ranunculus Bloomeri, a plant 

 very characteristic of the lowlands about San Francisco Bay, and an 

 excellent species. 



Of details of his life — dates and incidents — we know little. The 

 influx of immigrants from the eastern United States in the early 

 fifties brought many to California from New York State, a noticeably 

 large proportion of whom were afterward to take an active part in 

 state, municipal, and local affairs, and deserve well to be called 

 broad-gauge citizens. Mr. Bloomer was one of these. His birth- 

 place was at Marlborough, on the Hudson, and he received his educa- 

 tion at Newburgh College. The gold excitement of 1848 started 

 him on the journey to California in 1849, when he was twenty-eight 

 years of age, but he was taken ill on the Isthmus of Panama^^and 

 returned home to New York City. The next year he once more 

 departed for the Pacific Coast^ and arrived in San Francisco some- 

 time in 1850. He took part in the stirring events of early days; 

 was a member of that celebrated popular tribunal, the "Com- 

 mittee of Vigilance," and of the Fire -Department, was active in 

 the Lincoln campaign, and had many similar interests. On the 

 scientific side there is one fact to be recorded in addition to what 

 has been written, and which was of great significance, and had in 

 the end far-reaching consequences. This relates to James Lick. 

 Mr. Bloomer was the first to interest Mr. Lick in the nature and 



*Proc. Cal. Acad., ii, p. 11, illustrated by a plate. 



*Mr. Bloomer zealously cultivated the native species of Liliacese. 



