IN CALIFORNIA 33 



its kind grown within the borders of the State. 

 Mrs. Mary M. Bowman of Los Angeles has informed 

 me that when Don Juan Warner, famous in the early 

 history of California, stopped at that Mission in 

 1831, the Father Superior showed him a bed of queer 

 plants growing in the Mission garden. The Father 

 did not know what the plants were, but said that a 

 sailor on a vessel from the southward had once 

 given him a package of the seeds, unnamed. The 

 packet was overlooked for some years, but finally 

 the Father had the seeds sown out of curiosity to 

 learn their nature. They proved to be pepper 

 trees, or as the Spanish-Americans called them at 

 that time and still do, arboles de Peru, trees of 

 Peru. As they grew taller the Padre had them set 

 out in a row in front of the Mission all but one, 

 which he left in the original garden bed. Visitors 

 and Indian vaqueros, coming and going, hitched 

 their horses to the trunks; they were abused and 

 broken, and one by one all died, except the original 

 in the garden, which still stands, though the freez- 

 ing weather which visited California in January, 

 1913, killed the branches back to the main trunk. 

 The damage, however, was only temporary, and the 

 veteran tree has since started in vigorously to re- 

 gain its former great spread. From this tree and 

 its companions, the tradition goes, came the seeds 



