San Andreas Independent

The California Soap Plant.—We know very little about botany, and are quite ignorant of the classification and name of this singular plant, which is so abundant in our foot-hills. There is one peculiarity about it which is certainly very singular. The plant at first shoots up into a perpendicular stalk; which attains, usually about five feet in height. From this stalk, side branches are thickly studded with buds, which in shape resemble tiny dumb-bells. There is nothing very remarkable in the shape or appearance of the plant, but the peculiarity to which we have alluded consists in its odd manner of blooming. The blossoms open during the night time, and never open but once—yet this is not the novelty which we are endeavoring to get at. If any one will take the trouble to watch the plant for a few nights consecutively, after it begins to bloom, he will perceive that after the first night about four inches of the root of each branch will be covered with open blossoms; the next night these will be found all closed, and four inches higher on the branches will be in full bloom; and so on until the buds are exhausted. In a word the plant blossoms in sections of four inches at a time.
Placerville Observer