Flowering Shrubs of California and Their Value to the Gardener

London; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press ; Oxford University Press, 1948. 2nd Printing. Octavo with green and white pictorial boards; map on lining-papers; xii, 317 pages: illustrations; index; 21 cm Near fine with minor exterior wear and light foxing to edges and endpapers. Hardcover.

Out of print. Lester Gertrude Ellen Rowntree (1879–1979), a renowned field botanist and horticulturalist, was a pioneer in the study, propagation, and conservation of California native plants. In numerous journal and magazine articles, books, and public lectures, she shared her extensive knowledge of wildflowers and shrubs while arguing tirelessly for their protection.A self-proclaimed “lady-gypsy”, Rowntree spent most of each year doing fieldwork in California and the West while living outdoors, believing that the only way to know native plants was to live with them for weeks at a time in their natural surroundings." --Wikipedia. "The attempt of this book is to report -- by no means completely or finally-- on the flowering shrubs fo California and their culture. It is a sort of First Reader in which I have put down what I have gleaned from personal observation of the habits of these shrubs in the wild and the behavior under cultivation of those which I have grown in California during the last twelve years." --Preface. Written with a warm admiration for its subjects, and well supplemented with black and white photographs and a map.