PLANTS OF THE WORLD IN CALIFORNIA. 9 



Ireland eastward to Japan. Since then, the accessions to our cosmo- 

 politan population have included those who have heard flower lore 

 in all the tongues of men. Nowhere on earth, probably, has there been 

 such a gathering of devotees to floriculture, bringing the choicest 

 plants from the utmost confines of the planet. The writer is .not 

 aware that full enumeration of California's acquisitions of exotic plants 

 has ever been undertaken. It is, however, clear that it would disclose 

 an astonishing /aggregate. Dr. F. Franceschi, formerly of Santa Bar- 

 bara, made the following statement in 1900: 



"Santa Barbara is known at present all over the world as the place 

 where the largest number of plants from widely different climates 

 have congregated to live happily together, and often will thrive with 

 more vigor than in their native countries. At the beginning of the 

 new century it is safe to say that there are grown in the open at Santa 

 Barbara not less than one hundred and fifty different species of palms, 

 about the same number of conifers, fifty species of bamboo, about three 

 hundred vines and climbers, and, in addition, something like two 

 thousand different species of trees, shrubs and perennials. They have 

 convened here from the hottest and from the coldest as well as from 

 the temperate regions of the globe, and they combine to make a dis- 

 play of vegetation that has no rival anywhere." 



Since the above statement was written introduction has continued 

 and present figures are much in advance of those cited. Wealth and 

 taste have extended the exotic flora of the Santa Barbara region as 

 perhaps no other similar area in California has been enriched. But 

 of course wealth is not needed to secure beauty; taste and effort are 

 the essentials. 



DEVELOPMENT OF FLORAL INTEREST. 



During the early decades of American occupation, however, ornamental 

 horticulture received scant attention except in the suburban pleasure gar- 

 dens and parks of the pioneer cities and in the few private gardens of the 

 time. These were wonders to visitors, but their lesson to all California 

 home-makers was slowly learned. Rural scenes for many years included 

 inhospitable cabins or ranch houses, their weather-beaten sides environed 

 by corrals, or by dilapidated sheds and barns, their chief door-yard orna- 

 ments being farm tools and machines soaking in the rain and bleaching in 

 the sun, and their borders colored with discarded cans and broken crockery 

 pictures of unthrift and desolation. 



Notable changes in the landscape, and in the environment of rural 

 homes, came with the upbuilding of the fruit industries. The beauty of 

 the areas of fruit trees and vines began to win the eye from the neglect of 

 the house-yard, and the newer outbuildings were usually trim and incon- 

 spicuous. More recently the influence of well-cultivated fruit areas has 

 been to develop neatness and good culture in the house-gardens. It is 



