A.R. Valentien, a prominent artist of the American Arts and Crafts movement, was commissioned by Ellen Browning Scripps in San Diego in the early 1900s to create watercolor paintings of all the native California plants.

This monumental work of 1094 original paintings, which took him 10 years to complete, came to the San Diego Natural History Museum in 1933 after Miss Scripps' death. These exquisite paintings, breathtakingly fresh and lifelike in their color and detail, have been seen and appreciated by only a handful of people.