IN CALIFORNIA 269 



nooks and crannies as it can find it has to be 

 watched against encroaching on flower beds the 

 plant becomes set with little purplish knobs of buds, 

 which in April expand into flowers, each about as 

 big as a large pin. These, to the number of about 

 a hundred in a dense flattish head half the diameter 

 of a dime, are borne at the height of an inch or so 

 above the ground, and are of a lilac color with a 

 tiny yellow eye. The lower ring of blossoms opens 

 first, and to watch day by day the rising tide of 

 bloom, circle upon circle until the crown is solid 

 color, is like being a looker-on at some building 

 operation in Lilliput. For weeks a lippia patch in 

 spring is a sheet of delicate color, where bees hum 

 in ecstasy all the sunny days, to the great disquiet 

 of human trespassers in low shoes, who fear for 

 their unarmed ankles. California owes this charm- 

 ing plant to Dr. F. Franceschi, of Santa Barbara, 

 whose enterprise and enthusiasm, extended over a 

 quarter of a century in his adopted State, have won- 

 derfully enriched her exotic flora. 



His account of its introduction into California, 

 which occurred about 1900, is interesting: 



"It was in 1869, barely one year before the fall of 

 the second Empire, when the centennial of the first 

 Napoleon was celebrated with great festivities at his 

 birthplace, Ajaccio, in Corsica. The Superintend- 



