10 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



rouse says, "did not lose a moment in adding to 

 their collection of plants, but the season was very 

 unfavorable, the heat of summer having entirely 

 dried them up, and their seed being scattered on 

 the ground. " Those which they thought they knew 

 were "the common wormwood, sea-wormwood, the 

 male southernwood, mugwort, Mexican tea, Cana- 

 dian goldenrod, millfoil, deadly nightshade, spurry 

 and water mint." This offers a pretty puzzle to 

 the curious plant lover familiar with the native flora 

 of California, and I prefer to leave to such the prob- 

 lem of finding out what plants Monsieur Collignon 

 really found at Monterey. 2 La Perouse had, before 

 reaching California, visited Chile, and he brought 

 with him from that country some native potatoes, 

 of which he tells us he made a present to the mis- 

 sionaries at Carmel near Monterey. No doubt the 

 Padres planted some of them, and probably it was 

 in this way that potato culture originated in Califor- 

 nia. 

 Five years later, in the autumn of 1791, the ex- 



2 According to Dr. W. L. Jepson, in Erythea, September, 1893, a 

 few seeds collected by Collignon at Monterey did reach Paris and 

 were sown in the Jardin des Plantes. The result was an herb new 

 to Europe, to which the name Abronia umbellata was given. This 

 would, therefore, appear to be the first California plant to have been 

 scientifically described. It is a pink-flowered denizen of seashore 

 sands throughout the length of the State, and is one of several species 

 popularly called " sand verbena." 



