SAXIFRAGE FAMILY 



141 



representing a 2-lobed stigma. Capsule depressed-globose, loeulieidal. — Species 1. 

 (Professor W. M. Carpenter of Louisiana, first half of 19th century.) 



Bibliog. — Gray, A., Carpenteria, Torr., char, emend. (Proc. Am. Acad. 15:42-43, — 1879). 

 Hooker, J. D., Carpenteria calif ornica (Bot. Mag. t. 6911, — 1886). Greene, E. L., Carpenteria 

 californica (Pitt. 1:66-68, 141, — 1887). Jepson, W. L., [The rediscovery of] Carpenteria cali- 

 fomica (Erythea, 5:124,-1897); The long-lost Carpenteria (Sierra Club Bull. 11:151-153, 

 pi. 46,-1921). Cf. also Gard. Chron. n.s. 26:115 (fig. 22), 149, 174, 306, 339 (1886). 



1. C. californica Torr. (See Frontispiece.) Erect, 3 to 8 feet high ; leaf- 

 blades oblong, tapering to base and apex, the margins somewhat revolute, green 

 and glabrous above, white-tomentulose beneath, 2 to 4 inches long, short-petioled; 

 flowers 2 to 2^/2 inches broad; petals orbicular, rotately spreading. 



Along streams or shallow gullies on wooded slopes in the higher foothills, 1500 

 to 4000 feet : Sierra Nevada from the San Joaquin River canon to the north slope 

 of Kings River carion. May. 



Fig. 154. Cakpenteria californica Torr. Map showing the distribution of Carpenteria, 

 one of tiie most remarkable of the narrow endemics of California, in the Pine Eidge country which 

 lies between the main San Joaquin Kiver and the Big Creek tributary of Kings Eiver, Sierra 

 Nevada. The longitudinal range is 20 miles, the altitudinal range from about 1500 to 4000 feet. 



History of discovery. — John Torrey, in his original description of Carpenteria californica, 

 cites as the collector's locality, "Sierra Nevada of California, probably on the headwaters of the 

 San Joachin", Fremont. The shrub was not re-collected for a long time and Fremont's station 

 remained a mystery. Exploration of the high Sierra Nevada did not turn up the shrub and 

 besides it was well knovra that Fremont did not cross the Sierra Nevada in the region of the mon- 

 tane waters of the San Joaquin. It was more certain still that the species did not grow in the 

 Great Valley along the San Joaquin Kiver or elsewhere. At the meeting of the California Acad- 

 emy of Sciences on Sept. 4, 1876, flowering specimens of Carpenteria californica were exhibited 

 by Gustav Eisen and identified by Dr. Albert Kellogg (Proc. Cal. Acad. 7:110,-1877). Finally 

 the shrub had been re-discovered in the Sierra foothills at Grapevine Spring on the mountain road 

 between Tollhouse and Ockenden, Fresno Co., in 1875 (cf. Erythea 5 :124). On reaching "Walker 

 Lake on his 1845 expedition Fremont divided his command, sending his lieutenant, Joseph 

 "Walker, south along the east side of the Sierra Nevada to make a winter camp on Kern Eiver and 

 await Fremont's coming in the early spring. Fremont himself crossed the Sierra Nevada at or 

 near Donner Pass on December 5 and obtained supplies at Sutter's Fort. On his way to rejoin 

 "Walker, traveling south through the Great "Valley, Fremont crossed the San Joaquin Eiver, a 

 full-flooded stream emerging from the Sierras, and on meeting the Kings Eiver mistook it for 

 the Kern and made a fruitless attempt in midwinter to breast the most impassable portion of the 

 Sierra Nevada between the San Joaquin and the main Kings. "Without any question, it was 

 while engaged on this adventure, during which he was baffled and turned back to the San Joaquin 

 plain, that he discovered this very rare endemic (cf. map with his Geographical Memoir of Upper 

 California). His specimens, though taken so much out of season, show, characteristically, ves- 



