CALIFORNIA WILD ROSE (Rosa calif ornica, Cham. & S.). 

 Flowers pink, fragrant, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, in few to 

 many-flowered corymbs, or solitary. Bushes 3 to 10 feet 

 high, found from Lower California to Oregon, flowering prac- 

 tically throughout the year at the lower altitudes. 



Of the half dozen or so species of Pacific Coast wild roses 

 R. californica is the most common, often forming dense thick- 

 ets along roadsides, in moist meadows, or upon the banks of 

 streams. No California wild flower gave greater pleasure to 

 the pioneering Spaniards of a century and a half ago. The 

 diaries of the early Franciscan missionaries contain many ref- 

 erences to it, always with enthusiasm and affection; for it 

 reminded those homesick wanderers of their own sweet roses 

 of Spain. And so they called this wilding of the West the rose 

 of Castile. Even to the present day this name (in its Spanish 

 form Rosa Castilla] continues in use in the remoter mountain 

 districts of Southern California a pleasant link with that 

 early day when Spain was conducting the humane experiment 

 of reducing a race by religion instead of arms. 



A kindred species known as the Redwood Rose (R. gymno- 

 carpa, Xutt.) will sometimes be found in shady woods of the 

 Coast Ranges. It is of smaller, daintier habit. 

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