10 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS. 



common now to see around rural homes thrifty blooming plants adapted 

 to the localities, good hard roads and walks, following lines of conveni- 

 ence, and wide lawns or stretches of low shrubs connecting the home- 

 buildings with the environing vineyard or orchard expanses or with alfalfa 

 fields, extending to the edge of sight. Still there is room for much wider 

 prevalence of these desirable rural scenes. 



It is desirable also that there should be disseminated a higher and truer 

 conception of floral worth and beauty, and a better knowledge of what are 

 the best flowers and how best to grow them. It must be acknowledged 

 that grand and continuous as is the bloom which our benign climate and 

 generous soils give to even the most careless grower, our knowledge of 

 floricultural art and our practice thereof are still inferior. If such intensive 

 culture were given here as is practiced in the most advanced distant regions, 

 where they do wonders in spite of great difficulties in soil and climate, the 

 improvement of our garden flowers would carry them so far beyond their 

 present state that we could hardly recognize them. 



Many influences are strongly working toward a wider and truer appreci- 

 ation of excellence in rural and suburban surroundings. The very praise- 

 worthy work of women's clubs, the introduction of horticultural studies in 

 the public schools, the continuous exhortation of agricultural speakers and 

 writers, the multiplication of floral festivals, and the commendable enter- 

 prise of seedsmen and nurserymen all these and other agencies are ex- 

 tending knowledge of rural improvement and stimulating desire for the 

 enjoyment of it. 



Our State Flower. A fitting token of the prevalence of floral in- 

 terest and enjoyment in California is the character of the flower adopted as 

 the floral emblem of the State. By Act of the California Legislature, ap- 

 proved March 2, 1903, the golden poppy (Eschscholtzia Calif arnica) became 

 the state flower of California. The flower was chosen to queenship by the 

 State Floral Society at a duly announced election a decade earlier, the 

 poppy securing a pronounced plurality over all rivals for the honor. The 

 choice was ratified by local floral societies and enthusiastically accepted by 

 hosts of organizations and individuals, by their use of the emblem in their 

 publications, their insignia and their decorations. Botanists and travelers 

 have declared the choice one eminently fit to be made because of the 

 occurrence of the plant in every part of the State and the fact that every 

 day in the year, in some region or another, its bloom can be found, casting 

 a glorious golden glow over even the most desolate places, transforming 

 wastes of sand into grand stretches of color wherever a shower gives the 

 narrowest chance of growth, or spreading a larger, deeper orange bloom 

 over our richest soils in the fullness of the rainy season. 



Common consent has proclaimed the beauty of the poppy expressive of 

 the chief interests of the State the gold of the mine, the gold of the grain 

 field, the gold of the orchard, the gold of the dairy are all typified in the 



