THE LONG-LOST CARPENTERIA 

 By Willis Linn Jepson 



IN the year 1852, John Torrey, professor of botany in Columbia 

 College, published in the Plantae Fremontianae* a new species of 

 shrub from California which he named Carpenteria calif ornica, the 

 genus name being in honor of his friend Dr. Carpenter, of Louisi- 

 ana. This shrub had been collected by Fremont on one of his Cali- 

 fornia expeditions. No definite locality was given for it, except that 

 it came from the "Sierra Nevada of California, probably on the 

 headwaters of the San Joachin." 



In that early day the Sierra Nevada was only slightly known, and 

 the indication of Fremont's station for the shrub was regarded at 

 that time as extremely vague, since it may have been taken to mean 

 any part of the vast territory drained by the San Joaquin River. The 

 specimens had been collected in fruiting condition, and it was only 

 from some vestiges of withered flowers that Dr. Torrey was enabled 

 to make out the character of the petals and stamens. He demon- 

 strated that it belonged to the Saxifrage family, the Philadelphus, or 

 mock-orange, being one of its relations. 



For a long period, indeed nearly thirty years, nothing more was 

 known of this peculiar shrub. In the later seventies, nurserymen at 

 Fresno discovered in the Sierra foothills northeast of Fresno, near 

 the Grapevine Spring, above the toll-house on the road to Pine 

 Ridge, at about 3000 feet, a strange bush which turned out to be 

 Carpenteria calif ornica. They collected abundant seed, distributed 

 it widely to horticulturists, and it came into cultivation in various 

 parts of the world. 



For a long time a bush has been flowering regularly in its season 

 in the Botanic Garden of the University of California. It has pure 

 white flowers, two to two and one-half inches in diameter, with a 

 large yellow center of golden stamens. The buds of these flowers ter- 

 minate the branches, and on opening, instead of remaining horizon- 

 tal, turn to a vertical position and look frankly at you in a most en- 

 gaging way. The bush when in bloom is a very lovely one for garden 



^Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. vi, art. i, p. 12, t. 7. 



