6 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
CARPENTERIA CALIFORNICA. 
Scarcely twenty-five years have passed 
since this fine flowering evergreen first 
reac 
hed 
us as a 
rarity, 
even in its own 
country ; for although discovered in the 
gorges of the CaUfornian Sierra Nevada 
before 1850, it had remained so scarce 
that Asa Gray could only refer to im- 
perfect fragments when publishing his 
description many years later. But, 
thanks to modern enterprise, it is now 
well known amongst us, and is fast be- 
coming common in districts where it 
does well. In gardens of wet and heavy 
soil, the Carpenteria is never a success, 
stagnant moisture during winter being 
more fatal than cold ; with its back to 
a wall, it will stand twenty degrees of 
frost almost unharmed, where lack of 
free drainage means failure. Where the 
needful conditions do not exist in the 
open, it may be grown in a cool house, 
forming bushy plants, and flowering 
freely in pots. 
Our engraving gives a good idea of 
the large white flowers, with their cluster 
of yellow stamens, and mostly of 5 
petals, though they are sometimes of 
4 or 6, and more rarely semi-double, 
coming at the tips of the season's growth 
as clusters of 5 to 7, though sometimes 
they number as many as 12 blooms. 
In the greenhouse they open during 
April and May, and in the garden about 
six weeks later, with a fragrance of 
Mock-Orange flowers, and continued 
for several weeks. The leaves are light 
green above, smooth, or with a few 
scattered teeth upon the margin, and 
greyish-white with a close, felt-like 
down on their under surface. There 
are narrow and broader leaved forms, 
of which the first is the best, being 
hardier, and with more flowers of better 
shape. The leaf texture is delicate, and 
very liable to injury by red spider under 
glass, and by nip ping winds in the open, 
giving them a brown and shrivelled look . 
Its habit is freely branching, and its 
growth rapid when well established ; 
10 feet is about its limit, but plants 
rarely reach this, often dying suddenly 
without apparent cause. It is well, 
therefore, to keep a reserve of young 
plants which may be raised from cut- 
tings, layers, suckers, or seed. Well 
chosen cuttings root easily where others 
fail. They should be taken from the 
light side shoots, never from the stronger 
leaders, cut about 4 to 6 inches long, 
early in September, and put in pots of 
sandy soil in a cool frame, where they 
will root in about six weeks if kept close 
and shaded from hot sun. Suckers are 
freely given ofl'by old plants, and should 
be detached during early autumn with 
all the root possible, choosing showery 
weather, and giving shade until estab- 
lished. Layers should be made at the 
same season, tongued, and a little sand 
and damp moss pressed into and over 
the wound ; if watered carefully, they 
are sufliciently rooted to stand alone by 
the ensuing spring. Though not much 
used in this country, seed is a good way, 
and the first plants flowered in Europe 
were so raised. Good seed is some- 
times ripened in our fine summers, and 
should be sown in spring. 
The Carpenteria does well as a bush 
in Devon and Cornwall, the largest 
plant in England being probably one 
