WHIPPLEA (Whipplea modesta, Torr.). Flowers fragrant, 

 small (hardly \ inch in diameter), white, becoming greenish, 

 calyx and corolla 5-cleft and colored alike, borne in clusters 

 at the end of the branches. A low trailing plant with opposite, 

 3-nerved leaves about an inch long and somewhat hairy, the 

 stems slender and spreading. Blooming in March and April 

 in the forests of the Coast Ranges of California from Monterey 

 northward, particularly under redwood trees. 



The name Whipplea preserves for us the memory of au ac- 

 complished military officer, Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple, the 

 commander of a Government Survey exploring, in 1853 and 

 1854, along the 35th parallel of latitude for a Pacific railway 

 route. It was this expedition, particularly fortunate in its 

 botanic finds, that brought to light this little wilding of the 

 redwoods, whose unassuming charm seems to have appealed 

 to Doctor Torrey when he gave it its specific designation 

 modesta "the modest." Whipple, promoted during the Civil 

 War to a major-generalship, met his death at the battle of 

 Chancellorsville in the flower of his manhood. His name is 

 associated not only with this genus, but with several species, 

 including the superb Yucca Wkipplei of Southern California. 



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