The Huntington Library April 8th 2013

Did You Know? - Antirrhinum is a genus of plants commonly known as snapdragons or dragon flowers, from the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed. They are native to rocky areas of Europe, USA and North Africa.

Did You Know? - Snapdragons are perennial plants often considered as cold-season annual plants and do best in full or partial sun, in well drained soil. They are classified commercially as a range of heights: dwarf (6-8 inches), medium (15-30 inches) and tall (30-48 inches).

Did You Know? - For more than 80 years The Huntington Library has collected rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs and other textual and graphic materials important for the study of British and American history and literature, the history of science and technology, and the history of the book. The Library provides access to these materials in its reading rooms, where they may be studied by qualified scholars, known as readers.

Did You Know? - Love is a common theme among the garden sculpture, most of which dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, although some are the works of twentieth-century American artists such as Anna Hyatt Huntington, the wife of Archer Huntington, Arabella?s only child by her first marriage.

The 18th century limestone statues on each side of the North Vista depict characters from classical mythology and folklore. Each statue was originally matched to a stately palm.

The baroque fountain at the end of the North Vista was shipped in 48 boxes with a total weight of 42 tons. The boxes filled an entire railway car when shipped from New York.

Did You Know? - Canada Geese are primarily herbivores, although they sometimes eat small insects and fish. Their diet includes green vegetation and grains. The Canada Goose eats a variety of grasses when on land. It feeds by grasping a blade of grass with the bill, then tearing it with a jerk of the head.

The Canada Goose also eats beans and grains such as wheat, rice, and corn when they are available. In the water, it feeds from silt at the bottom of the body of water. It also feeds on aquatic plants, such as seaweeds. In urban areas, they are also known to pick food out of garbage bins.

During the second year of their lives, Canada Geese find a mate. They are monogamous, and most couples stay together all of their lives. If one dies, the other may find a new mate. The female lays 3?8 eggs and both parents protect the nest while the eggs incubate, but the female spends more time at the nest than the male.

Did You Know? - Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep, peace, and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of the common blood-red color of the red poppy in particular. In Greek and Roman myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead.

Poppies used as emblems on tombstones symbolize eternal sleep. This symbolism was evoked in the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which a magical poppy field threatened to make the protagonists sleep forever.

Did You Know? - The name "heliotrope" derives from the old idea that the inflorescences of these plants turned their rows of flowers to the sun. ????? (helios) is Greek for "sun", ?????? (tropein) means "to turn". The Middle English name "turnsole" has the same meaning.

Did You Know? - Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3?5 cm long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, sometimes red-blushed skin. The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid, depending on the cultivar.

Each fruit contains from one to ten ovules, though three to five is more common. A variable number of the ovules mature into large brown seeds. The skin, though thin, can be peeled off manually if the fruit is ripe. In Egypt varieties with sweeter fruits and fewer seeds are often grafted on inferior quality specimens .

The fruits are the sweetest when soft and orange. The flavor is a mix of peach, citrus and mild mango.

Did You Know? - A conservatory is a room having glass roof and walls, typically attached to a house on only one side, used as a greenhouse or a sunroom. Conservatories originated in the 16th century when wealthy landowners sought to cultivate citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges that began to appear on their dinner tables brought by traders from warmer regions of the Mediterranean.

Did You Know? - Mount Wilson is one of the better known peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, part of the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, California.

It is the location of the Mount Wilson Observatory and has become the astronomical center of Southern California with 60-inch (1,524 mm) and 100-inch (2,540 mm) telescopes, and 60-foot (18.3 m) and 150-foot (45.7 m) tall solar towers. The summit is at 5,710 feet (1,740 m). Some surrounding peaks are slightly higher. Due to its elevation, snow can sometimes interrupt astronomical activities on the mountain.

Mount Wilson is also referred to as a metro-media center and antenna farm for its relay broadcasting of radio and television for the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Did You Know? - A bog is a mire that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material?often mosses, and in a majority of cases, Sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire and muskeg. Frequently, as the illustration on the right shows, they are covered in Ericaceous shrubs rooted in the Sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.

Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. In some cases, the water is derived entirely from precipitation, in which case they are termed ombrotrophic (rain-fed).

Water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins. In general the low fertility and cool climate results in relatively slow plant growth, but decay is even slower owing to the saturated soil. Hence peat accumulates. Large areas of landscape can be covered many meters deep in peat. Bogs have a distinctive group of plant and animal species, and are of high importance for biodiversity, particularly in landscapes that are otherwise settled and farmed.

Did You Know? - Amorphophallus titanum (from Ancient Greek amorphos, "without form, misshapen" + phallos, "phallus", and titan, "giant" ), known as the titan arum, is a flowering plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. The titan arum's inflorescence is not as large as that of the talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera, but the inflorescence of the talipot palm is branched rather than unbranched.

Due to its odor, which is reminiscent of the smell of a decomposing mammal, the titan arum is characterized as a carrion flower, and is also known as the "corpse flower", or "corpse plant" (Indonesian: bunga bangkai ? bunga means flower, while bangkai means corpse or cadaver). For the same reason, the title "corpse flower" is also attributed to the genus Rafflesia which, like the titan arum, grows in the rainforests of Sumatra.

The Huntington?s First "Big Stinky" in 1999 - In the summer of 1999, The Huntington was the focus of world-wide attention when it exhibited the first Amorphophallus titanum ever to bloom in California. It was only the 11th recorded bloom of one of these plants in the United States. During its short bloom, Huntington botanists hand-pollinated the plant with its own pollen, using an experimental technique (self-pollination is normally impossible). The procedure was a success resulting in fruit and 10 fertile seeds from which several seedlings eventually were produced.