Contributions to western botany. no. 1-18

CONTRIBUTIONS

to

WESTERN BOTANY
No. 17

MARCUS E. JONES, A. M.

CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

Issued September 3, 1930

1EX LIBRIS]
| JOSEPH EWAN

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 1

BOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

n I printed my notes on Botanists whom I have known I had n
idea i kind of reception they would have, nor did I care. I felt that aby
remarks about the older botanists would be welcome to some, as they would
be to me to get any notes pertaining to Gray, Watson, Nuttall, Pursh, Tor-

em, and request has come from several sources to continue them. I never
intend to follow the beaten path, nor to trim my sails to suit readers, if they
o not like what I write they can leave it. I think it a sin to te y the
palatable things about people. You never get a correct mirror of them
in that way. I have no sympathy with concealing the truth about the dead.
I abhor hero worship. When a man sets himself up as a little god I feel
like taking a shot at him.
esert, responding to an insistent appeal for information I wrote
y impressions of Engelmann, which also met with a general interest. I
here reprint the article.

DR. GEORGE ENGELMANN
(Reprinted from “‘Desert’’)

suppose in the lives of all of us there stand out men and women whom
we feel honored to have known. One of them is the subject of this sketch.
The other is Mrs. T. S. Brandegee, the greatest woman botanist that ever
lived.

Dr. Engelmann was born in 1809, and after his sega wpe in Germany
Saige © to this country and settled in St. Louis. He belonged to the pio-
heer age in American botany, a period when systematic botany was in the
formative stage, ha men had to guess as to what was a genus and species;

en men had to delve deep into the secrets of Nature to find the laws gov-
erning the origin of the vegetable forms we call species and genera.

From the standpoint of quality of product I consider him the greatest
American botanist. He belonged to the age of Bentham, Hooker, Beis
sear Engelmann and Watson. Torrey was much older, having been

n 1798, Gray in 1810. Watson was much the youngest. All of them were
ediitaled as physiological (ean not as systematists. They had to make
systematic botany as we know it. We therefore find them emphasizing
structure inordinately, and from ha foolish standpoint we have not yet got
far away. 'y had to work under the artifical system of Linnaeus, and it
took many years to get away from it. The great task of systematic botanists
is to devise a system of relationship, showing the genetic origin of all plants
in order. Engelmann had to do with this system in which the highest plants
were considered to be dicotyledons, then the next lower the monocotyledons,

2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17

then the polycotyledons, the flowerless plants, like the ferns and club-mosses,
algae, and fungi and lichens. The dicotyledons were divided into polypeta-
lae and apetalae. This was the order till the time of the death of Engelmann.
Since the time of Engelmann, Engler and Prantl, and others since their
time, have tried to arrange plants in the natural order, beginning with the

Engelmann, because of his microscopic methods of going into every
detail of structure, confined his work to certain families and genera of

wanted to take a swim in Great Salt Lake. No visit to Salt Lake City is
complete till you have taken a swim in the dead sea of America. So I was
invited to go with him and Parry on the morrow, to the lake. iving
we found much difficulty in getting a suit large enough to cover his ample
midsection, for he was wider than a New York alderman’ there, but at last
got him duly covered ,and he walked out into the water. The ubiquitous

was nearly dead, and coughed terribly till the water was all out of his lungs.
Then a very severe inflamation set in that sent him to bed for some days.

My correspondence with Dr. Engelmann continued till his death.

He was the head and front of the Missouri Botanic Garden and the
great herbarium there. One of his most intimate friends was Shaw, a rich
man, for whom Agave Shawii was named. Before Engelmann’s death the
garden was called the Shaw Botanic Garden, but after his death the name
was changed to the present one

Dr. En

Dr. Eng was a most intimate friend of Gray and the other great
botanists of his time. 2 S

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 3

Co; PARRY

In the early years Parry, who lived at Davenport, Iowa got into cor-
respondence with me because his name was the most prominent at that time,
doubtless because he was the physician on the Mexican Boundary survey,
and posed as a botanist. He was selected as the botanist of Capt. Jone’s
survey of the region of the Yellowstone Wyoming in the Teton region, =e
found a very small number of plants that were new at that time. A li
later on he was appointed as botanist of the Department of Agriculture, ne
same position occupied by the genial Dr. Vasey later on..

Parry was a typical toady, as most men had to be to get a position in
the Government service. He was a suave, well groomed society man with
little brains, a great feeder of hot air, who slobbered over the great to keep
in their good graces. He seemed to have pulled the wool over Gray and
Engelmann though I doubt if he ever was a real friend of either.

I assume that he was with Gray and Hooker in their trip across the
continent in the sixties, for he told me of the meeting of the two men with
Greene in Silver City, New Mexico, where they spent the Sabbath with him
and attended the service at which Greene preached on “Consider the lilies
of the field” etc. Parry told me that Greene preached a very good sermon.
It will be remembered that Greene was an Episcopal minister in charge of
_ the aa at that time in Silver City.

n 1880 Parry accompanied Engelmann on his trip across the
Sadinent ar acted as a kind of chaperone for him. This was on the sup-
position that t Parry knew the country, because he had spent a month or
so in southern Utah at St. George botanizing, where he camped on J. E.
Johnson for a month. During that time Pa and his wife were the
guests of Johnson, lodged and boarded by him. I have spoken about him as
being a typical grafter because after getting free board and lodging for a
month (because he was such a famous (?) botanist), and when he left he
presented to Johnson with much ceremony a thirty-five cent linen prover
microscope as a memento of his visit.

My next acquaintance with Parry was in 1882 when I was on a bot-
anical tour in southern California. It so happened that Parry was at the

me up and introduced himself and wife. He then informed me that Pringle
had just come in on a botanizing trip, and he suggested that we three make
up a party and go to Ensenada together. This was agreeable to me and it
was soon arranged. Pringle was an old correspondent of mine, but we had
never met. Parry took on himself to arrange for the trip by hiring a team

also a resident of San Diego, a wealthy attorney and a great fern lover, and
influential citizen. Pringle had his own outfit and a young man as helper.

4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17

So we started out with our rattle trap of an outfit and drove to Tia Juana
and camped the first night. The next day we drove through the Valley of
the Palms and botanized along the way. Charley Orcutt magnified his po-
sition till he became intolerable, and he was always toadying to Parry and
neglecting his duties. So I took his aside and reminded him that I was
paying half the expenses and expected service from him, and would see that
he gave it if I had to beat him up. He saw that I meant business and after

a few days we reached Ensenada and camped along the beach. Parry
at once ambled off to the town, and I went out on the hills to botanize.

way down to Ensenada, when we all three were in the uggy I saw a new
rose growing in the brush and stopped the team to get out and collect it. My
eyesight was better than that of anyone in the party or they would have seen
it. I unwisely showed my new discovery to Parry and he climbed out and

_

or traveled on Sunday, and so I wanted to remain there over the Sabbath,
but Parry said he could not wait as he had urgent business in San Diego
and had to get back at once. So he agreed to send Charley back in the
morning with the team if I would not object to his going right in. Some
months later on I found that Parry’s urgent business was to steal my new
rose from me by sending it in to Engelmann and having it published before
I could attend to it. This was Rosa minutiflora.

permitted to drive the team till I had paid my bill. There was no bill due
till I got to San Diego. So I leveled my pistol at him and told him to get
out of the way, and he did in a hurry. So I drove in to San Diego and let

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 5

him and Charley walk the twenty miles. When they got to town they went
direct to the editor of the daily paper, the San Diego Union, and made out
quite a weird story of my performance as a bad man. The editor made quite
a half column of screed that was good reading. So when it came out the
next morning I at once sat down and wrote the facts of the case and re-
quested the editor to print it ,which he did. Then the oily Parry came to
me and wanted me to pay my bill for the trip. I told him to bring it in
and I would settle it as we had agreed. But when the bill came it con-
tained among other items a charge of $10 for the ruined shotgun, and other
extras. I promptly refused to pay any of them, but agreed to pay just what
we had agreed on before the trip was made. So I gave him a check for
the amount and told him to sue for the rest. Parry tried to scare me into
paying extra by saying that they would arrest me for pulling a gun on
them, and would give me other trouble. I told him to start the ball a ee
at once and I would stay an extra day to enable them to prosecute m e-
ing something of a lawyer I knew they could do nothing, and that hey were
only bluffing and it turned out that way.

Parry remained in southern California till he wore out his welcome,
for he was always sponging on people so long as they would permit it. His
wife was an excellent lady.

That trip with Parry and me convinced Charley Orcutt that he was a
great botanist, and he began to swell around like a toad. Later on he took
several trips into Mexico and collected several new species. His chief dif-

other botanists. He was crooked financially, and impossible to get along
with, and yet he had considerable talent, but the petting he received from
Cleveland and others turned his head, and he never amounted to anything.
On our way back to San Diego we had a long hill to climb, and Parry
said he would walk and cut across and meet us on the top. I also walked
to relieve the team of my weight, and on going up the hill I found eke
unilateralis a new species. When we reached the top Parry was not to be
seen, red we had left him behind. So I stopped the team and went
over to a bat near by where a young Mexican woman was standing, and
asked her in my best English if she had seen an old man going along the
e smiled sweetly and said “Quien sabe.” Then I tried to manu-
facture some pigeon English, and conjured up all the Latin I could think
of in various enagreige to make her understand what I meant. But the
was always the same. This was my first experience trying to talk
to someone a ada not talk English. Finally I had to resort to panto-
mime to get her to understand. At this juncture Parry showed up. I de-
cided right there that I never would be caught in such a fix again. So I
got a Spanish dictionary and reader and began to learn Spanish. Two
years afterwards I thought I had become rather proficient, and could if
conditions warranted — he out of Latin what I lacked so that I could
talk to Mexicans. I was at El Paso, Texas, and it was hot and dry and
I was hungry for a Aisa for there were piles of them for sale along

6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17

the sidewalk, but I did not know the name for them. So I promptly walked
up to a Mexican and said “Quanto dinero por una aguamelon?” He grinned
and replied in perfect English “Five cents for a watermelon.” I knew I
had put my foot in it but did not know how. So I sneaked off behind a
building and pulled out my dictionary and found that sandia was the name
for watermelon, and melon was the name for muskmelon. Since that time
I have been a little skittish about manufacturing Spanish out of Latin.

“THE PUSH”

If I were seeking public commendation I should be much gratified
at the reception of my article on this subject. For I have received more com-

any in Government circles. I do not however care what the public thinks
about my writings. They are printed to get certain facts before the public,
and if the public does not like it, then it can go hang. A person who attacks
anything must expect reprisals of all kinds, misinterpretations of his motives,
personal spites, and the like. It has been my lot for forty years to be a

to death if they accidentally said their soul were their own. The colleges
are now beginning to fill up with the same brand of half wits, while the
really big men stay out, all because real men will not endure being bulldozed.
So it is time that someone raised his voice to stop the evil.

To my mind there is no sin so heinous as that of assassinating a man
by denying him his right to individual expression. And no man can sink
lower than to become a cowardly pussy foot.

In exposing the tricks of the cowardly pussy-foots, whose squawks are

warn the younger generation that all is not gold that glitters. If these men

st on their own achievements, and did not assume much more than they

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANy No. 17 7

s I know, Britton never but once tried this game on the botanical
public ai an attempted to discredit the work of Mrs. Brandegee by intimat-
ing that she had no “Botanical intuitions”. Since then I have been calling on
on him to show some “botanical ee and up to date there has been

no reply. Had Britton in the beginnig used the methods he has used of late,
he would have got attacks only on ay ideas, but as everyone knows who was
doing botanical work forty years ago he did not play the game on the square.
He had for years been plotting the downfall of Harvard, but was too
cowardly to come out into the open until after Gray and Watson died. Then

raised no comment. But it was intended to give to himr and his hand-picked
committee, the sanction of the A. A. S. for anything they might propose,
but it was not so understood by those who voted for it. A year later when
the product of this committee was published as the official output of the
A. S. and proved to be a new botanical system, it raised a nation-wide
howl, and was repudiated by the great majority of the A. A. §. Then Brit-
ton had to take a new tack
So he wrote to a selected few whom he thought were in favor of his
scheme suggesting the formation of the Botanical Society of America. Even
his hand-picked few turned the scheme down, saying the time was not ripe
for such a move, but he went ahead and formed the Society with his rump
coterie. Respect for the opinions of the botanical world required him to invite
Harvard to help form this society. This was turned down and Robinson
would not join it. Since then the organization has passed out of his control

Flora and its financing by himself. In this his peculiar views on botany are
duly set forth by his henchmen, particularly Rydberg. But the assumption
of superior knowledge and “botanical intuition” is conspicuous by its ab-
sence.

Britton’s method is the effete one of Europe, which was rejected by
Kew and the leading American botanists of the last generation, and I need
not go into detail about it here

WOOTON AND STANDLEY’S ASTRAGALI

It has been my privilege recently to examine the types of these pro-
posed species. None of them are any good. In their key they show a gross
ignorance of relationship, putting Sonorae (humistratus var.) next to loti-
florus; and albulus (humistratus) next to remulcus. In A. altus they do refer
to its relationship to Rusbyi. It appears to be a form of strigulosus.
albulus there was written in plain hand by, myself some years before the
publication of this species, and on the type sheet that it was A. humistratus.
There is no, recognition of this fact in the description of this species. On

8 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17

stipules are found in no other allied species, and it is common.

Their identification of A. tephrodes showed that they did not know the
species, for they mixed it with other species with fleshy pods.

The whole “Flora of New Mexico” shows the same character of being
done with a lick and a promise that characterizes all of Standley’s work. He
will not get very far in systematic work until he stops slopping through his
work, in a mad effort to do a great deal in a very short time.

BOTANIZING IN TEXAS, 1930

prairie region. For the only accounts we had were those of the railroad sur-
veys and of Lindheimer. Later on Havard had done some work along the
border mountains. I never felt that I could afford the trip till in 1903
when I went with my son to El Paso and thence to the Sierra Madres of
northern Mexico. This trip was a very productive one in new species. But
I did not get east of El Paso. But have had longing eyes for the region
ever since. I abandoned collecting sets as a regular business in the eighties,
and devoted my time to a more profitable work in economic geology. It so
happened that I had two months’ time to spare in 1930, and so I decided to
employ it on the long-delayed trip to Texas.

I left Claremont, California April 1st. 1930. I drove to Shaver’s Well,
California. The next day I drove to Quartzite, Arizona, botanizing on the
way, particularly at Blythe. The next day I drove to Aquila, a station
west of Wickenberg, Arizona, where I got considerable stuff. Thence I

and collected a little. The next day I drove to Phoenix, and the next to Tuc-
son. Then to the Huachuca mountains in Ramsey Canon where I was last
year. Then I drove to Lowell a smelter town near Douglas. The next
day I drove through Douglas and then on to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Then
south 40 miles to El Paso and then east to Sierra Blanca, Texas. There
was considerable out in bloom there on the mountain to the west. Then

drove to Davis Junction where the road forks. I took the lower road east
instead of going to Pecos, for my destination was the experiment station at
Sonora, which is some 90 miles north of Del Rio. At Sonora I found that
the station was 19 miles south on a state ranch. So the next day I drove
there and remained three days with the men connected with the work. We
went pretty well over that region studying the vegetation and stock conditions.
We then took a trip some fifty miles west to a stock ranch to examine con-

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 9

There are some twenty-six experimental stations in Texas devoted to
the work of stock betterment and protection and agricultural experimenta-
tion.

The next day I also went with the veterinary to a ranch near Rock
Springs where a number of valuable goats had died from weed poisoning.

As a result of all these examinations, I came to certain definite con-

ninety percent of the cases the range is so overstocked that the grass is eaten
wn to the roots all the time. That is, the range is sheeped out. This

cause normal s will not eat them. In fact wherever stock refuse to eat
any plant it is sufficiently evident that the plant is poisonous e
question put to as What must be done to prevent stock poisoning? My

the key to stock-poisoning throughout the West. It is clearly criminal for
anyone to put stock on ranges where there is no feed for them, and a few
years in jail will do these men more good than any amount of argument.

tock. hen I was just west of Fort Davis, Texas, I passed a beautiful
ranch where the grass was knee-high and the cattle rolling-fat. It so hap-
pened that I saw large patches of Loco poison along the road and got out
to collect some. While I was at it the owner came along with his boy and
wanted to know who and what I was. I said I congratulate you on being

I meant it. Well I said your ranch is not sheeped out, and your cattle are
in fine condition. So we became fast friends on the spot. He explained

10 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17

and never overgrazed his
our Government poison squad were allowed to do their own thinking
instead of frantically chasing all over the country digging up weeds and
testing them for poison they long ago would have suggested just what I am
saying now. Any stockman knows that what plants their stock avoid are
poisonous to them. And any stockman knows that under normal conditions
stock are never poisoned if they have enough grass feed to eat. It is only
when the range is sheeped out that they are forced in desperation to eat the
harmful weeds that they get poisoned.
It surely was a surprise to me to find the range all fenced and none
of the vast wild area of two generations ago, when the great cattle barons
used to trek a thousand miles across the range to market with their herds.
Del Rio, some 400 miles down the Rio Grande in the wildest of the wild
region where the bandts and Mexican guerillas used to hang out I imagined
would be composed of a few shacks, a lot of saloons, and a horde of swag-
gering cow-punchers. Instead I found a city of 4000 people, paved streets,
electric lights and gas, and decent, well educated people and no cow-boys.
Along the river where a person can wade across almost anywhere I saw no

how he did it by saying that he always kept feed on hand for emergencies
range.

at the Hot Springs and the Indian Hot Springs. There was every con-

venience at the Indian Hot Springs including electric light and hotel accom-

modations. I saw only two Texas rangers, young men wearing revolvers
e

did not ask them if they were just from New York, but fellows wearing
spats usually never lived in the region of overalls and high-heeled boots. I
saw no young women smoking a pipe and only one flapper smoking a cig-
aret, and I could find ten times as many right in Los Angeles. I did not see
half as many flappers in all Texas as I would see in my own home town.
I guess the only place now to find the wild and woolly people is in the
story books.

somewhat so that drainage areas were formed which for the most part

or river, or occasionally as with the Pecos and Devil’s rivers forming box
canons of short extent, but with these few exceptions the general surface was
gentle in slope. In extreme western Texas there is little or no sod, and
the prevailing vegetation is the mesquit or creosote bush or Chenopodiaceous

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 i

shrubs where the drainage is slight. But as we go eastward there is an
imperceptible Eevee of sod grasses till at Alpine there are vast areas
all covered with sod, forming real prairies, and we come to unmistakable
prairie vegetation, I see no cause for speaking of the region as being di-
vided by the

This is ee of Wooton and Standley’s Flora of New Mexico
where one is led to expect a marked change on crossing that dribbling
stream.

I am told that before the advent of fencing the range the whole region
from Alpine east was a vast prairie, but now almost everywhere there is a
forest of live oaks and attendant shrubbery. But one must not think that
my discussion of the geology embraces the whole region. I mean the groun
work of the region is an elevated floor of a Cretaceous sea where the rocks
were mostly limestones. But it is well known that in any vast region like
thi ed

at high angles into mountain chains, mostly low ranges, and in others there
has been an exudation of lavas forming mountains such as the Chisos range.

rings, but

except the Pecos and Devil’s river, and the latter is the only one deserving
the name of river. The mountains rarely reach 6500 feet elevation, and so
do not seem to have much real forest except here and there in the gulches.

d they have no alpine vegetation, and so far as I saw no spruce vegetation.
At cloudcroft there was Middle Temperate vegetation, and the only range
reaching 9000 feet alt. At Kent and Alpine the hills seemed to belong to
the Lower Temperate, where the live oaks prevailed. All the rest was
tropical, shown by the presence of Larrea and Mesquit. On the flanks of
the low ranges just on the edge of the Tropical are vast areas of Yucca elata
and macrocarpa, with a few patches of Agave. I have elsewhere given my
reasons for discarding various species of Yucca and Samuela recognized by
Trelease.

Going down to the Rio Grande river from Sonora off the high plateau
to Del Rio I was greatly Daren gas to find the river wending its way
along a great plain, and t a gradual infiltration of Mexican plants,
but there was nothing like ae great change in vegetation Soren Ul at
Cajon Pass, California, or the region from Kanarrah to St. George, Utah,
where the life zone limits are conspicuously sharp. It was a gelight to see
Lepachys columnaris and Gaillardia pinnatifida saying “Hello,” as I passed

the real prairies of Iowa. The presence of such genera as Engelmannia,
Lidheimera and Zexmenia spoke unmistakably of the southern nature of
the vegetation. :

12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17

A SWING AROUND THE CIRCLE

After completing the identification of my Texas plants collected in
April, I had a month’s time on my hands, and decided to revisit the Little
Colorado region that I explored in 1890, forty years ago. I knew that there
is seldom any rain on the desert, and only then can one expect to get plants
of interest. My experience in Texas had led me to think that I would find
a fine flora on the Little Colorado. On June 10th I started for Flagstaff,
Arizona. I drove east to Amboy and then north to the Providence mountains
for a few day’s work, but the flora was too far gone to get much of interest.
Then I passed through the Needles where the temperature was 115 degrees.
Then up to Oatman where I found several interesting species, among them
an apparently new Agave and Nolina Bigelovii in fine shape. Then on to

ackberry, where I was most agreeably surprised to find Canotia in fine
shape. A new locality for this rare genus. Then on to Flagstaff, finding
interesting things along the way. Then north to Cameron and Tuba City,
hoping to find the new species I got there forty years ago. But there had
been no rain in that region for three years, and so my trip was in vain., Even
on the Kaibab where there usually is ten feet of snow everything was bare.
So I went on to Kanab, and then up the Vergin to the beautiful Hidden
Lake where I found much vegetation. Then on to Panguitch and Salt Lake
City. Everything was green and fresh on the way.

Then after a day visiting at my old home I left for Elko, Nevada, and
got the very rare Eremochloe Kingii Watson at Wendover. Then I drove
north over very bad country roads to Owyhee and Mountain Home, getting
interesting plants on the way. From there I went west along the Columbia
highway over fine roads to Arlington, Oregon, where I ferried across the
Columbia, and then drove up on the great plateau to Bickleton. Then back
to La Grande, Oregon, and the Wallowa mountains at Wallowa lake, where
I botanized two days. Then back to Baker City and south to Stein’s mount-
ain, some 200 miles towards Winnemucca Then to Winnemucca,
where I took a side trip to Battle Mountain to get Astragalus pterocarpus, the
only known locality for it. It was obliterated in the type locality, but I found
plenty of it a few miles away. Then back to Winnemucca and on to Lake
T _ Then home through Sacramento to San Joaquin valley. None of
the region was new to me except Elko-Owyhee, and the Baker City Winne-
mucca trip. The roads in that region were very poor but passable, but the
main highways were fine.

My reason for visiting Stein mountain region was to get onto the
flora where Cusick many years ago got some fine things, but I was too early
for the high flora and too late for the low flora, but in spite of this I got
many interesting things in this region which is so hard to reach.

a

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 13

LOCALITIES IN LOWER CALIFORNIA

In my botanizing in the lower part of Lower rai there were few
‘polities visited, In 1926 I botanized at La Paz, which is on the gulf on the
east side of the peninsula, and is the capitol of the seaitheees “half of the pen-
insula. Most of my work was along the aos line to the east of the town.
I also took a trip to San Antonio, 44 miles south, which is on the stage
route to San Jose del Cabo, and is up near the divide leading over to San
Bartolomo, and is in the hills. ea same year I took a trip of 20 miles south
of Hermosillo to a silver mine in the Yaqui region. I also got a few plants
at Carbo on the main railroad ites south of Nogales

In 1927 I went straight to San Blas, Sila © which lies about 40 miles
east of Toplobampo Bay, and to Los Mochis which is only 10 miles east of it.
Then after stopping at Mazatlan I went to Tepic, the old and famous town
in the old state of ‘Tepic, now called Nayarit. From there I went to Ixtlan,
a small town on the railroad some 70 miles east, then to La Barranca, a little

station on the edge of the great barranca where ma were building a bridge.
This place is about 65 miles northwest of Guadalajar

In 1928 I went by boat direct to San Jose del ay which is 14 miles
east of Cape San Lucas, and the only big town in that region. It has no
harbor, boats having to land through the surf. Some 40 miles east of it is the
pretty little town of Miraflores, on a river coming out of the Laguna mount-
ains, al I took my horseback trip up those mountains, going ten miles west
before rning up a river leading to the heart of the range. Ten miles east
of sraiaces lies "Seiitiage: and some 20 miles farther and on the coast
lies the Ranch by the Sea where I did a little collecting. After leaving the
ranch by the sea the road goes along the coast a few miles farther and

region and has some magnificent springs and raises much fru

only other place needing mention is Ue Sal be on ie sea, and
60 miles wet and south of La Paz. wen ool miles east of there to the
foot of the Lagunas at the Coda ranch. I ai ent some 14 miles west of
La Paz on the mesa which extends to Magdalen Bay, to get the persimmon
growing there.

14 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANy No. 17

LOCALITIES

Shaver’s Well, Calif. This is 12 miles east of Mecca, near the crest
of the range and at the upper end of the canon, and just on the upper edge
of the Tropical life zone.

The Hayfields. This is at the foot of the range and 14 miles east
cf Shaver’s Well and 20 miles west of Desert Center.

Blythe is on the Colorado river, and at the end of the beautiful road
from Mecca. It is only a few hundred feet above sea level and is very hot
in summer.

Quartzite, Arizona. This is up in the hill country, 19 miles east of
Blythe and in a valley among the mesquite. Going over to it, the road
passes through a limestone area where the soil is very scanty. Quartzite
itself lies back in the sandy area

A , Arizona. ‘This lies some sixty miles east of Quartzite, in the
sand soil of the plain, which extends to the hills just west of Wickenberg.
Going over these hills we meet Canotia growing on the rocky slopes among
the mesquite.

Wickenberg. This lies near the head of the Hassayampa river at the
Junction of the Blythe-Phoenix and the Phoenix-Prescott roads. Here the
Blythe road turns south to Phoenix.

Sacaton. This is on the Salt river south of Phoenix, a Government
experiment station. I took the Casa Grande Ruin road out of there instead
of going south, and passed by the eastern edge of the low range south of
Sacaton, where I botanized on the boulder strewn hills.

Huachuca Plain. This term is used for the region east of Fort Hua-
chuca, near the mouth of Ramsey Canon.

Ramsey Canon. This is the third canon west of the north end of the
Huachuca moutains, and goes up to the crest of the range

enson. This is a station on the Southern Pacific R. R., about forty
miles east of Tucson, where the road forks going east. Stein’s is a station
on the railroad nearly north of the Chiricahua Mountains and east of Bowie.

Texas Canon begins a mile or so west of Dragoon station, and leads
down to the plain which leads to Wilcox and Benson. It is a short stretch
winding down through huge granite boulders along a small creek.

Rodeo. This is the first station on the railroad east and north of
Douglas on the plain.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17 15

other goes east a short distance to Davis Junction where it again forks,
one going east to San Antonio and the other northeast to Pecos. At Van
Horn a main road also goes north to Carlsbad, and it was here that Pine

there to Artesia, 35 miles, where I turned westward to Cloudcroft, Alama-
gordo and Las Cruces

LOCALITIES IN THE SWING AROUND THE CIRCLE

At Amboy I turned north to the Providence mountains, passing on the
way the beautiful spring in the cove of the Old Dad mountains where I got
most of my specimens on my previous visit to that range. On this visit I
went some ten miles farther to the Barnes ranch at the foot of the Providence.

East of the Needles Oatman lies near the top of the first range east of
the Colorado river and here we get almost out of the Tropical life zone.
Then we descend to the plain again and go on to Hackberry where the rail-
road goes up a canon in a low range. It is here just before we enter the

passing through Kingman, Peach Springs, Seligman and Williams; the
ities being on the plateau in the yellow pine timber, in the Middle Temper-
ate life zone. Peach Springs is near the lower limits of the Lower Temperate
life zone. Williams is just in the edge of the Middle Temperate. The
whole Mogollon plateau, except along its edges, is in the Middle Temperate.
Going north from Flagstaff toward Cameron’s, we soon get out of the
Middle Temperate and down into the Lower Temperate, and continue in it
to below Cameron’s where there are traces of the Tropical coming in.
City is nearly east of Cameron’s and on a branch of the Little Colorado,
the Moencopa river, and is fed by springs cropping out near the top of the
cliffs in the Jurassic formation.
se Rock is the old name of a water hole near a rock looking like
a eae: some 40 miles west of Lee’s Ferry. But the old House Rock has been
abandoned and an oil station near the base of the Kaibab some four miles
west of old House Rock now has that name. There is a house there and a

From this valley the great whale-back called the Kaibab rises half a mile or
more into the sky.

Kanab lies at the foot of the cliffs, which farther north and east form
the famous Bryce cano :

16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17

From Kanab the road goes up Kanab Creek and over a divide and

rrounded by much vegetation. I did some botanizing here and along the
river towards the summit.

Going west from Salt Lake City and around the north point of the
Aqui range west of Grantsville, I collected some on the cliffs and along a
wash before I got out on the main desert, the real bed of the Great Salt Lake.

There was nothing of interest crossing the salt beds till I passed Wend-
over and was climbing over the hills which had many patches of the very
rare grass, Eremochloe Kingii, which looks like a Tricuspis or Munroa.

rom Owyhee, here and there, to Bruneau, are arid patches bearing a pecu-
liar flora such as Mentzelia, Astragalus Toanus and speirocarpus, etc.

Owy! Ss on a flat near a great lava mesa, and the flora is mostly
Middle Temperate meadow formation. From there northward the road
drops down some to the level of the Snake river clay bluffs, whose sides
are scored by rain and rather bare, but what plants are found are interest-
ing. Owyhee and Bruneau are not far from Mountain Home.

North of Weiser, on a fork of the Weiser river, is Mann’s creek on
the highway to Cuprum, Meadows, etc. This was an interesting region in
the early spring because of the umbelliferae growing in the gumbo soil of the
bluffs. But I was too late for that flora.

After my visit to Bickleton I drove back to La Grande, Oregon, and from
there drove 65 miles east to Wallowa lake, which lies behind a glacial
terminal moraine at the mouth of a canon in the upper edge of the Middle
Temperate life zone. From there trails go up into the high Wallowas above
timber line.

of the John Day river, and followed down to Prairie City, a beautiful country

irie. From there it was not far to John Day town and
Canon City, where the ground is all torn up by placer mining for gold.
From there the road follows up a long way and over onto meadows in the
parklike country to Burns, which lies out in the sagebrush area near the Mal-

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 17

heur lake and alkali flats. Princeton is a mail station east and south of
Burns on the edge of Malheur flats, and at the base of a long lava mesa.

Then the road turned southeast, going over and through the north end

ve Stein’s mountain and down to Alberson’s ranch on the east side of the

ange. Then down to the old Alvord ranch on the east side of the range
which lies just east of the highest part of Stein’s Mt., on the edge of the
desert. From here the road goes south to Field’s and Denio, the latter being
on the line between Oregon and Nevada.

From here to Winnemucca is a succession of flats and low volcanic
mesas and sagebruch to Winnemucca.

Throughout htis region the season was past for plants. In going around
the divide leading over on to Carson desert, and going out of this area near
Wadsworth, there was an interesting group of plants got along the way in
the sand. This region is about 4500 feet alt. above

Lake Tahoe is in the Middle Temperate life zone mostly.

La Grande Oregon. There may be some misapprehension about the
spelling of this name. It is not Spanish but French from those who first
settled the region. There seem to have been many Frenchmen in the log-

ing camps around this place in the early days. It is on the beautiful plateau
that is inclosed by the Blue mountains on the southeast and the Wallowas on
the east, and an extension of: the Blues on the west. It is a magnificent
and nearly level valley all grassed over, and has a very fertile soil of black
loam; and is well watered by streams coming down from the adjacent hills.

ECOLOGICAL NOTES

For nomenclature see Contributions No. 13. It may be well to say that
Merriam’s Lower Sonoran is Tropical, his Pichi Sonoran is Lower Temper-
ate, and his Transition is Middle Temper

Practically all of my Texan trip was in eee Tropical, which I did not get
out of except a little in Huachuca Mountains, a small area west of Silver
City, New Mexico, at Cloudcroft; and the region around Artesia and west-
ward, which probably was Lower Temperate. Near Sonora, Texas, the
crests of the hills show an influx of Lower Temperate, but there is no good
zonal plant to use as a guide in that region, for the Juniper i is surely J. occi-
dentalis var. monosperma, and not Utahensis, and it is not subject to the
zonal limitations of Utahensis.

In the June-July trip I did not get up into the upper zone in the Provi-
dence and Old Dad mountains. A little east of Hackberry , Arizona, the

Rock. The lower seoes of the Kaibab are ered Lower ecaseaie and

18 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANy No. 17

give way to the Middle Temperate which covers the bulk of the Kaibab, ex-
cept on north slopes and tips of ridges which are Upper Temperate. Going
north to Kanab we get down into the Lower Temperate and continue in that
zone far upward toward the divide leading over to Glendale, and at and
near Glendale we get in that zone again, and this zone continues up the
Vergin many miles until it gradually fades into the Middle Temperate, which
continues over the summit to and below Panguitch. Near Marysvale we get
again into the Lower Temperate and continue in it to Salt Lake City.

West of Salt Lake City we are in the same zone to and beyond Wendover
where we gradually get up into Middle Temperate on the summits we cross
as far as Wells and Elko. North of Elko the vegetation is mostly Middle

NOTES AND NEW SPECIES

Cheilanthes Jonesii Maxon. It is unfortunate that this species was
named after me. From all that I can learn it seems distinct from Nothol-
aena tenera, and the rudiments of an indusium would place it in Cheilan-
hes. I was not the original discoverer. I should judge that J. E. Johnson
of St. George, Utah, was the discoverer, some ten to twenty years before I
got it at the place of discovery. I do not recall who called my attention to

of a Pellaea. No one would ever take it for either a Cheilanthes or a No-
tholaena.

Bigelovia albida Jones. I was agreeably surprised to find this on the
alkali flat just south of Denio, Oregon, about 165'miles north of Winne-
mucca. The type locality for this plant is Wells, Nevada. It has since
been found by Hall in the Escalante desert, Utah, and by me at various

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 19

localities on the western side of the desert which marks the western edge of
Lake Bonneville, in the region from Wendover south to east of Osceola, on
alkaline flats.

THE PALMS

In commenting on the flowering of the palms I remarked last year
that they had bloomed again here in cultivation, but did not set much fruit.
The same trees have bloomed copiously again this year, in fact better than
in 1928, and they will set fruit copiously again. But the past history of
the palms is that they seldom fruit, as shown by the old peduncles still
hanging on the trunks. The continued fruiting lately is certainly due to the
unusual rains we have had. Yucca Whipplei bloomed again this year
almost as copiously as before, but Mobavensis hardly bloomed at all, because

of its remarkable blooming last yea

gave Utahensis var. ‘as n. var. Plants with the general habit of
Utahensis and about ten feet high. Leaves subulate from a broad base and
about 6 inches long, tapering into a stout spine an inch long, with margins

black base. Cross-section of leaves flatly triquetrous, leaves arcuate inward.
Many peduncles several feet long, and ending in a very loose panicle with
racemose rays rather distant as in ep eord and with flowers congested at
the ends of the rays, and yellow, and not in an uninterrupted spike as in
typical Utahensis, tube of perianth 1-2 lines long, and flowers not an inch
long. Fruit not seen. Near the top of the divide above Oatman, Arizona,
and along with Nolina Bigelovii.

Agave Utahensis var, scaphoidea (Greenman and Roush) A. scaphoidea
Greenman and Roush. I cannot see any specific character in this proposed

es.

s

rd

Nolina Bigelovii (Torr.) Watson. The type locality; of this species is
Bill Williams river, western Arizona, which stream flows just south of the
i is Mt i j atman. found

slopes in rocky places and continuing nearly to the foot of the range, Tropical
life zone. The plant grows mostly in clumps though occasionally single
stalks occur. They seldom have much of a trunk. The leaves are clustered
in a fascicle at the top where the erect peduncle arises. The leaves are
about 3 feet long and flat and not rough on the margins, an inch wide, and
taper to a rather spinose tip, and the peduncle carries the magnificent panicle
clear of the leaves, the panicle being much longer than the proper peduncle,
and a compact lanceolate mass several feet long and tapering upward. The
flowers are white, in a dense and spike-like raceme, 4-6 inches long, which is
ascending and arises from the 1-2 foot long rays of the panicle. The
flowers themselves are about 2mm. high and! 4 mm. wide, with segments
2-3mm. long and oval-cup-shaped, acutish, very hyaline but with strong

20 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17

midrib, and tissue-paper-like, and at last rotate spreading,| being crowded
out by the inflated ovary. The anthers on the pistillate flowers are ovate

?

but I see no signs of it in the specimens gathered, and the plants are therefore

Allium Haematochiton. As far as I can learn, all the southern Cali-
fornian material referred to thi sspecies, outside of San Luis Obispo region
is what Davidson has described as A. Marvini. It is true that Davidson

sometimes they are diamond-shaped on the same bulb scale, at the ends.
Normally the bulb scales are brilliant red or purple, and very thin, and

seep of water in the spring. They grow only in the Tropical life zone, and
bloom early, mostly in March. Davidson’s type was got near Beaumont. It
is frequent at Puddingstone Dam, near San Dimas,

Allium. The reticulatum group of this genus is very common in western

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17 21

have it from Rock Springs, Texas, April 16, 1930; Ozona, April 13, Sonora,
April 14; North of Del Rio, April 17, and at t Del R Rio. Shorter and less
slender forms but crestless with slightly longer flowers arer from Rodeo,

\A. reticulatum differs only in the strong central crests and in being a little
stouter. The flowers have a tendency to be bluish along the midrib, and the
bulbs are often several in a cluster. I have it from Indian Hot Springs
along the Rio Grande, April 30, 1930; Sierra Blanca, April 10, 1930; Del
Rio, April 20, 1930, Lordsburg, N. M., May 5, 1930. The character sepa-
rating this species from Nuttallii is only the crested ovary, a somewhat shaky

Allium Bigelovii Watson. This well marked species is less than six
inches high from the bulb which is 2-3 inches deep in the ground. The
leaf is single and arcuate but not flattened nor wide, and overtops the
flowers. The umbels are large and about 20-flowered, with rather stout
pedicels 34 inch long, and with the white flowers with conspicuous and
deep red midribs and tips, and segments about half an inch long and lance-
ovate-acuminate. The crests are central, erect, petal-like and nearly as long
as the capsules. The bulbs are globose-ovate, about an inch long and with
deep reddish-brown outer coats separating readily. The bulbs propagate as
in A. bisceptrum but without runners. The markings on the coats are well
figured by Watson Bot. King, t. 38 f. 8 and 9. The walls of the meshes
are a little uneven but not really sinuous as in A. bisceptrum.
53a near tip is about the same, as given by me in Cont. 10. I found this only
growing in the live oaks west of Silver City, N. M., May 5, 1930.

Allium Coryi n. Sp. Allied to reticulatum group. Growing on

capes plains at Alpine, Texas, ie 26, 1930. Plants about six inches to
oot high, slender, erect, with 2 3 basal leaves half as long as peduncle

which are very narrow and sienlhe Bulbs ovate, with very many yellowish-
brown reticulated coats from which the very thin and hyaline membrane has

in Nuttallii. Sheaths of the umbels about as long as pedicels (1-2 inches).
Pedicels slender. Flowers about 10, chrome-yellow, 3-5 mm. long, rather
ovate. Perianth segments oblong-ovate triangular-acute, the outer ones with
strong midrib. Ovary globose, crowned with thin and flat low crests on the
angles. Odor inten One tries very hard to put this in Nothoscordium,
but the bulbs and color are that of an onion. This is the only native yellow
onion. Anthers elliptical, on filaments nearly as long as the perianth. Ded-
icated to V. L. Cory of Sonora, Texas, an indefatigable botanist.
Nothoscordum Texanum N. Sp. Bulbs depressed-globose, about 2 inch-
es wide when mature, of many hyaline and very thin coats onion-like, the
i ee being much like those figured in No. 52, second figure, in my Cont.
;w and at the base of the bulbs are produced one to several shining
bulblets within the coats. The stems are 1 to 1 1-2 feet high and erect and
slender and about as long as the very narrow leaves which are uniform in
width and basal and about four. Bracts hyaline, about an inch long, two,

22 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANy No. 17

pedicels 1-2 inches long. Flowers about ten, half an inch long, whitish or
yellowish or purplish, with green base and green nerves, with the erect
rianth broadly linear and rounded at tip. Anthers broadly linear, on fila-
mm

long, low-crested. Bulbs deeply set in the ground, often about 6 inches deep.
Rodeo, Arizona, April 8, 1930. On plains. Also at Del Rio.

Nothoscordum striatum Kunth. (N. bivalve (L) ?). What appears
to be this species I have from Rock Springs, Texas, with small bulbs half an
inch long and with smaller flowers.

anca, Texas, was one of the localities specially visited by
Trelease before he published his revision, and on the plants growing there

The apple-green leaves have

come to study the area throughout and far down toward the Indian Hot
prings, Many square miles of them, we find a very different condition,

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 23

either very thin or very rigid, and two to four feet long, almost flat or deeply
sulcate. Then the flowers vary from typical to almost rotate and with or
without a tube. You find flowers two inches and flowers four inches long.
The whole pseudo-forest region seems to be a unit in its Yucca vegetation.
You do find, here and there, a few Y. elata, but this species is not at all
related to the edible-fruited Carnerosana. Now what is a person going to do?

imperceptibly into Yucca baccata. There seems to be a gradual intergrada-
ion from Yucca Schottii to the macrocarpa of the plains, and from that to
. "M ohavensis of California. I have already called attention to the inter-
breeding of Mohavensis with baccata. I have now been studying closely
for seven years the various forms of Yucca and I find that Y. Mohavensis
very often has the pear-shaped flowers of baccata though most of the forms
have nearly rotate flowers. The panicles of Mohavensis are almost always
sessile among the leaves, as are those of baccata, but baccata never has a
trunk, while all the others have a trunk at ma turity at least. There is no
way to keep up the species of Yucca as interpreted by Trelease Sitted to
ignore all ecological facts and rest arbitrarily on variable characters. I

adjacent coe there is no telling the forms apart by the leaves. Trelease

forms of flowers of Y. Treculiana without manifest tube into
Yucca, and his with tube into Samuela, but there is a gradual intergrada-
tion, and no possibility of separating them in the field, by any floral or
vegetative character.

Calochortus Nutallii T. & G. on the banks of the Gila river near
Silver City, N. M., May 4, 1930.

Sisyrinchium Arizonicum Rothr., Rock Springs, Texas, April 16, 1930.

Iris Missouriensis Nutt. Cloudcroft, N. M., May

Nolina Texana Watson. Hope, N. M., May 2, 1930; Valentine, Texas,
April 28, 1930.

Agave heteracantha Zucc. Hot Springs, Pee April 24, 1930. This is
very common on limestone areas along the Rio Grande, ocurring in great
masses. It was just coming into bloom. The flowers are a very deep

le.

purple
Nothoscordum striatum Kunth. Rock Springs, Texas, April 17, 1930.
This appears to be quite common but was hardly in bloom.

24 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17

Brodiaea capitata var. pauciflora Torr. Aquila, Arizona, April 4,
1930; Lordsburg, N. M., April 9, 1930.

Yucca macrocarpa Eng. Bot. Gaz. 6 224 1881. Plain near mouth of
Ramsey Canon, Arizona, April 6, 1930. This is practically Samuela fax-
oniana Trel.

Yucca Schottii Eng. Ramsey Canon, Arizona, April 6, 1930. Leaves

Yucca caniliculata Hook. This is Samuela Carnerosana Trel. Y. Trecu-
liana Carr. Sierra Blanca, Tex., April 11, 1930. A form nearer true canal-
iculata also from Sierra Blanca, April 11, 1930. A form about the same as
Samuela Faxoniana from Indian Hot Springs, April 29, 1930. An inter-
mediate form from Colossal Cave, Arizona, May 6, 1930. Also another
form from east of Lordsburg, N. M., May 6, 1930.

Yucca rupicola Scheele. Devil’s river, Texas, April 26, 1930.

In going east from the Needles, California, along the highway, I had
a chance to make more notes on Yucca. Near Hackberry, which is near the
upper limit of the Tropical, Yucca Mohavensis disappeared quite suddenly
and Y. baccata came in strong and continues strong to the lower limit of the
Middle Temperate near Williams, where it quit off suddenly and Y. angus-
tissima came in and continued nearly to Williams. In its zone Y. Mohay-
ensis rarely reaches 15 feet in height and had few stolons, and was in full
fruit (June 15) and some pods being full sized. The fruit is spreading,
or rarely fully pendent. It is rounded at the end and apiculate and about
four inches long normally, though very often only two inches long and much
stung by insects. When not stung there is no constriction in or near the

very common north o oy and continues nearly to the Needles, and is
less common on the Arizona side to Hackberry. Some stemless forms simu-
late baccata in the blueness of the leaves.

the other hand Yucca baccata is conspicuously caespitose with sev-
eral stolons which very rarely have any trunk at all, though cases occur

e
deeper channeled, and narrower normally. The panicle is linear, much
fewer flowered, rarely oblonceolate, two feet long. The pods are conspicu-
ously acuminate, about four inches long by two wide, and mostly pendent.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 25

They should be fleshy when mature. The flowers are very narrowly pear-
shaped, short-stiped, white with linear and blue-striped seg (perianth),
with tips spreading. The stipe is 14 inch long as in Samucla. The species
can always be separated from Mohavensis by the p

olina Texana ? This comes in along is road in the upper edge of
the juniper belt, west of Williams, on dry knolls. The panicles are 3 to 6
feet long and with short peducle at base, very different from N. Bigelovii
at Oatman, which was also in full bloom.

Caulanthus annuus. N. Sp. Annuals, 2-3 feet high and erect. Racemosely
branching above, and with the branches terminating in a naked raceme
about a foot long in fruit, but flowers inclined to be capitate at first. All
the leaves sessile and clasping but not perfoliate, entire, rounded at both
ends, the lowest inclined to be obovate-elliptical, the middle ones elliptical-
oblong and the uppermost ovate-elliptical, about 3 inches long, flat, the upper
somewhat reduced, the internodes somewhat shorter than the leaves. Flowers
bractless, narrow, nearly half an inch long, with linear and slightly saccate
bases, and tips inclined to spread, and purplish, thin petals nearly white, flat,
linear-spatulate, entire, a little longer than the sepals, very thin, and a little
longer than the linear and sagittate and twisted anthers. Pods on stout and
ascending pedicels half an inch long and which are 1-2 inches apart. Pods
inclined to be tetrangular, 2mm. wide and 5-6 inches long, indifferently as-
cending, and rather lax, with a stout beak 1-2 mm. long, whole plant smooth.
Leaves inclined to be ‘palmately veined below. Growing in waste places
on slopes in the pine forests. Middle Temperate life zone, cies Canon City,
Oregon. The plant has the habit of Streptanthus orbicular

Lepidium montanum Nutt. This species as ‘adit audersuct is a
hodge-podge. The type is described as having elliptical pods, which is a
character of the plants growing around Grand Junction, Colorado, and which
seem to pass into L. alyssoides and have a short style. The majority of the
material from the north (Wyo. to Oregon) and south at least to central
Utah, has cordate-ovate pods, reticulate pitted, distinctly stipitate, and with
style half as long as the pod, and top of pedicel somewhat winged. This
would come between L. Cradallii Rydberg and L. papilliferum (Hend.)
Nels McB., both = which seem to be spurious species. It is unfortunate
that we cannot use either proposed species as a variety of L. montanum,
though Crandallii i is nearer than the other but founded on a pod too long and
without the rugose sides. L. papilliferum is described as having orbicular
pods and short style. Now the form of this species ( prema common
in northern Nevada, is striking and quite different from typica mtanum.
There is a great variability i in the length of style, from not Gace en the
notch to Imm. long. But the same re habit, being a short-lived peren-
nial. Collectors have confused forms of L. medium Greene with this species
from the north. I doubt if any ei of alyssoides occur anywhere in the
north, with which nee have confused the same species (L. medium).

Stanleya annua N. Sp. No. 25317, Stems annual, erect, 2-4 feet high
and simple, not seals nor winged, glauous and smooth throughout. Leaves

26 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANny No. 17

lanceolate and rather acuminate, apparently entire, 3-4 inches long, the
lower auriculate clasping and the upper hastate clasping. Fruit i na long
and simple raceme 1-3 feet long which is densely flowered with ascending
fruit. Pedicels an inch long and filiform, with stipe nearly as long and
ascending. Fruit about 2 inches long, by 2mm. wide, slightly torulose, later-
ally flattened, a little arched, ending in a short beak about 1-2 mm. long.
Flower not seen. Frequent along the roadside at Huntington, Oregon, June
25, 1930. The species of Stanleya are described as perennials, but S. elata
is a biennial, and this is clearly an annual

Populus balsamifera L. In 1930 I had exceptional opportunity to study
this species in the Wallowa mountains, Oregon. There can be no doubt of
the specific identity of this and P. trichocarpa, the difference being only var-
ietal. The tree has the same habit, the leaves are the same, the only differ-
ence lies in the hairy pod of trichocarpa, a character truly not specific.

Nolina Bigelovii was a conspicuous plant near the upper slopes of the
mountain at Oatman on the eastern side, and reminded me of the magnifi-
cent Yucca Whipplei of our California slopes. The panicles were several
feet long and rather golden yellow and wand-like and long stalked. I found
both male and female plants in full bloom about the middle of June.

the same tendency to be trailing, but I incline to think the two species belong
in the same group of the inflati.
Astragalus Cobrensis Gray. As shown in my revision of the genus this

and few pods. The pods are narrowly oblong and blunt at both ends and
triquetrous-cordate in cross-section and pendent. The plant was in fruit
early in May, 1930.

Astragalus Thurberi Gray. This plant does not seem to have been
collected very often, if at all, and is not mentioned by Coulter in the Flora
of Texas, though it ought to be common in western Texas, nor by Standley

part of the state, growing in the same situations as A. playanus, and often
with it. It would be easy to confound it with small forms of playanus, but
so far as I have seen it does not hybridize with it. I have one collection

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17 ZF

that may be a hybrid but the pods are too small. I have often seen them
growing side by side but without any sign of intergrading.

It is a short lived perennial, with many stems from the same root and
spreading out to form a mat at times two feet in diameter, the central stems
being erect. I was in error on page 102 of my monograph in saying that
it grows in the Lower Temperate life zone, for it is found only in the
Tropical. It a! on sandy plains. My collection are east of Lords-
burg, N. M., May 5, 1930. Foot of Ramsey Canon, Huachuca Mts., April
Oo, 3930.) 4 saw it in several other places but did not collect it. Miss East-
wood also collected it at Silver City, New Mexico

Astragalus oye Gray. This plant seems to include playanus
Jones. At least I can find no permanent character to separate them, while
there seems to be an intergradateion toward triflorus D. C. This plant is
quite common on sandy places and on plains throughout southern Arizona and
New Mexico. It is certainly a short-lived perennial blooming the first year.

Astragalus lentiginosus var. palans Jones. I very unexpectedly found
this on the Papago Reservation west of Tucson, May 7, 1930.

Astragalus remulcus Jones. It is quite possible that this is too near
Pephragmenus Jones, but the pods are too acute. e plant is manifestly
near to argophyllus but I thing distinct from it because of the smaller flowers
and habit. I have it He Silver City, N. M., May 4, 1930, just in the edge
of the ee life zon

eee is (Gray) Jones. I have this in exactly typical mater-
ial from Texas Canon, near Dra, ragoon, Arizona, May 6, 1930. It grows flat
on the groun ne in ae gravel and is perennial. Mouth of Ramsey Canon,
Arizona, April 6,

Astralagus Rhea s H. & A., growing in sandy places 40 miles
north of Tucson, Arizona, April 5, 1930.

Astragalus Nuttallianus D. C. I have this in half a dozen rip
forms but I do not think they deserve varietal rank. Sonora, Tex.,

1930; Rock Springs, Tex., Apr. 16, 1930; Sierra Blanca, Tex., pe 11,
1930.

Astragalus mollissimus Torr. Hope, N. M., May 2, 1930. This seems
typical. It is a robust plant a foot and a half high, with large and purple
flowers, and cylindrical pods arcuate somewhat and cross-nerved and sulcate
at ore ne and linear-oblong and apiculate, rigid.

galus ene Watson. oe sone! = be the same as the species
an Sethe: by Prof. Cory. Ic y valid distiction between
this and A. rad ecu The pod is baal erm instead of narrowly so,
and the flowers are yellowish. Rydberg describes A. mollissimus as being
“caespitose” but the plant is simply densely sve like all the other allied
species. The best that could be done with it would be to call it a variety of
mollissimus. Ozona, Tex., Apr 13, 1930.
Astragalus Bigeloyii Gray. This plant varies from mollissimus in the

28 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY No. 17

pubescence being silky-woolly instead of appressed-hairy, and in the shaggy-
hairy pods. Silver City, N. M., May 4, 1930. East of Lordsburg, N. M.,
May 5, 1930. These plants were low and widely Jers: and with short
pedun cles. Ramse ey Canon near the mouth, Apr. 6 , 1930. These plants
were tall, two feet high and mostly erect. This species seems to be more
common than mollissimus.

Astragalus Earlei, Greene. This species looks like a small-fllowered
form of Bigelovii with narrower pod (lance-oblong) and barely short-pubes-
cent pods. The pubescence of the whole plant is short and dense. Alpine,
Tex., Apr. 20, 1930; Marathon, Tex., Apr. 24, 1930.

Astragalus marcidus Greene. Whole plant softly shaggy-long-woolly
even to the . Flowers small and purple in a dense and elongated spike.
Pods depressed-globose and barely apiculate, 4-6 mm. long, concealed by the
calyx. This is a counterpart to A. Matthewsii but the pods only about a
quarter as large

these species lead one to think vi the Mollissimi group is very
variable and that the species are confluen

Astragalus crassicarpus Nutt. nine, Tex., Apr. 26, 1930. This is a
species with a single erect and thick with a crown of many stems
spreading in all directions, the lateral ones ee or prostrate in fruit.
The pods vary from spherical to broadly oblong. This includes Rydberg’s
Geoprumnon succulentum and A. a The Texan plants are unusually
small, but with the characteristic root

Astragalus Plattensis Nutt. I should judge ” this includes A. pachy-
carpus G., which I referred to crassicarpus as a variety in my mono-

: Torrey and Gray did not know anything aren the root system of
= plant, but the shape and character of the pod would place it with Platten-

However the status of the species can be determined at once if it belongs
ra Plattensis, for this species is entirely different from crassicarpus whose
root is single, fleshy and erect and with all the stems coming out from the

escent at first. The habit of the species is much the same as A. agrestis
( bie hcon na Ozona, Tex., growing with A. giganteus, on mesas among the

Astragalus humistratus Gray. This is the white-pubescent early form
which Wooton and Standley call albulus. Organ pass, N. M., May 3, 1930.
ae on the Gila river, N. M., near Silver rah ae 4, 1930: Lordsburg,

N. M., May 5, 1930 and at Silver City, May 4,

Astragalus allochrous Gray. Localities £OS I got this are Organ
Pass, N. M., May 3, 1930; Deming, N. M., Apr. 9, 1930; Lordsburg, N. M.,
May 5, 1930 and Apr. 9, 1930; Fort Davis, Apr. 28, 1930; Faxes Canon,

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN Botany No. 17 29

Ariz., May 6, 1930. A possible hybrid with Thurberi is from Alpine, Tex.,
Apr. 26, 1930.

or speirocarpus. The locality, however, “No 793 Brandegee, eastern Wash-
ington,” would tend to tie it up with specimens got by me in Bruneau, Idaho,
and Stein’s mountain, Nevada, in 1930. In critical characters the description
fails utterly. Then the absence of flowers in the type complicates things.
The specimens collected by me show a very close relationship with A. speiro-
carpus. On the other hand no one seems to know for sure what are flowers
of speirocarpus, or its exact habitat. In my revision I put speirocarpus in
the group of Gibbsii and collinus with stubby ochroleucous flowers. If that
reference is right then sinuatus is a good species, assuming of course that my
material is A. sinuatus. Without repeating the characters given by Piper,
I will say that the plants have the habit of A. fallax, that is they are erect
spreading. The flowers are about the size, color and shape of A. cibarius,
that is narrow and not at all stubby, but with broad and short wings, and
purple, but the calyx is that of Gibsii. The pods are conspicuously laterally
flattened and sharp-ridged, almost winged on the sutures, and coiled into a
complete or double circle or sometimes not into a third of a circle, and are

or sandy areas. Since the localities in which this plant is found are so far
apart, there will be no trouble in getting all its characters, but more study
must be had on true speirocarpus.

Lupinus platanophilus N. Sp. Plants low and caespitose after the fash-
ion of Lyalii, from a perennial root. Proper stems simple, rarely branched
below, erect or spreading, rather thick and fleshy, with the nodes aggregated

and apiculate, 1 to 1 1-2 inches long and nearly half as wide. Peduncles
about 4 inches long. Flowers light purple, about Smm. long, ascending on
capillary pedicels about 4mm. long, with the silvery-hairy calyx deeply 2-cleft
nearly to the base. Banner round and about 3 mm. long, abruptly recurved
at calyx tips and purple-tipped, about 1 mm. shorter that the deltoid and
very broad wings which cover it. Immature pods shaggy. The leaves are
fleshy and hard to dry. The plants have the habit of L. concinnus. Grow-

30 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANyY No. 17

ing under sycamore and alders on moist flats near the creek in Ramsey
Canon, Huachuca Mts., Ariz., Apr. 6, 1930.
Chenopodium capillare N. Sp. A slender annual hardly a foot high,
dichotomously branched from the base into a rounded mass about as wide
igh, glaucous-green throughout and smooth except for dense scurf

that of Teloxys or Chenopodium botrys. The whole of the upper half is a
mass of dichotomous pyramidal infllorescence, with the flowers about sessile
in the forks and one to few there, and with the terminal one on a long and
capillary (pseudo) pedicel 1 cm. long or Jess. Stamens apparently 1-2 and
barely exserted. Flowers about 1 mm. wide and depressed-lenticular, with
5 oblong-ovate sepals very scurfy, which are spreading at maturity, or at
least open somewhat. Seed single, lenticular, much flattened an i

half its length, barely an inch long. Leaves many. Growing in sand along
with Abronia Crux-Maltae, etc. Carson Sink near Wadsworth, July 7, 1930.

Mentzelia acerosa N. Sp. Caespitose perennial from a thick and
fleshy and erect root. Stems slender, much branched from the base, white-
barked and bary densely white-pubescent, and stems closeset and tangled,
very leafy throughout and with short internodes, particularly above, and
becoming fascicled, and with the few flowers sessile among the leaves at the
ends. Leaves 1-3 inches long, pinnately cleft to the base into 3-5 divisions
which are subulate-acuminate into a sharp spine and very pubescent with
very short and stiff and warty hairs spreading at right angles, with revolute
margins and raised midrib, leaves sessile and thick. Flowers yellow, about
1 cm. long, with the 5 lanceolate petals sharply acute and hairy on the out-
side, and surpassed by the many stamens which have capillary filaments and
oval anthers. Calyx lobes subulate and as long as the petals. Fruit ovate,
about 5 mm. long, rough-hairy; seeds smooth, oblong, hardly 1 mm. long,
apparently 3-angled and winged on the angles. Plants growing on bare clay
hills near Bruneau, Idaho, June 23, 1930

hairy with very long and slender setae 3-4 mm. long. Corolla barely sur-
passing the calyx lobes, a dirty-white, with the lobes rotately spreading and
round. Filaments coiled and not so exserted, but much longer than the
corolla which is about 6 mm. long. Calyx lobes very narrowly linear and

CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 31

2a little narrowed below, acute, very setose, twice as long as the oblong-
te pods. ied elliptical, 1mm. long, acutish at both ends, conspicuously

siecalate pitted,

Genitiopappas flavescens is described as biennial. It surely is a per-
ennial.

ahia depressa N. Sp. A low perennial a few inches high and much

branched from the base, with short internodes and overlapping leaves which
are about an inch long and spatulate and entire, and but little reduced above.
Whole plant white-floccose even to the involucre. Heads terminal and lateral,
on stout peduncles about as long as heads which are 4 inch high. Bracts
of involucre oblong, erect and rather rigid, not spreading in fruit, with about
3 yellowish glands toward the tip (not visible except on looking through the
bracts), forming a cup from which the ripened flowers fall. Rays several,
yellow and about half as long as the heads, fertile and with the fruit in-
clined to be flattened and black. Pappus of about 5 scales tapering into
denticulate awns as long as the body. Seeds appressed-pubescent. Growing
on Cliffs near the Devil’s river, Texas, April 22,

Stephanomeria minima N. Sp. A weak and wae speetine annual, di-
yatiseicly much branched, a few inches high, leaves clustered at base
mostly, the stem ones much reduced and bract-like. Basal leaves lanceo-

inch long and dear bracted above the middle. Heads 4mm. long, smooth,
light yellow, linear, with 4 linear bracts a little flaring at tip and purplish
there, green, and with a single broad bract at base. Flowers 4. Akenes
linear, truncate, not rugose but minutely roughened, with 4 strong ribs flat-
tish on the top, aes rib with a very thin and raised central line and with
as minute single grooves on each side, yellow, pappus consists of a ring
of white bristles, Cheit 20 to 25 in number which are barbellate but not
plumose, which come off from the akene in a body. Bristle about as
long as the akenes, which are as long as the involucral arn Growing
on the clayey plains at Fredonia, Arizona, June 1, 1929. This no doubt
has been lumped in with S. exigua.