Nemophila : meeting and field guide

NEMOPHILA

Meeting and Field Guide

CALIFORNIA BOTANICAL SOCIETY

MAR. 24, 1921 NUMBER 13

The purpose of the Society is to promote the botanical study
and investigation of California plants , to diffuse knowledge con-
cerning them , and by lectures , field-trips , exhibitions and publica-
tions to deepen interest in the native flora amongst the people of
California.

FIELD TRIPS AND MEETINGS.

Wednesday, March 30. Exhibition of Native Flow-
ers, Hunt’s Grove, St. Helena. Take 8:00 a. m. S. P.
train from San Francisco. Members may also take boat
to Vallejo from San Francisco, thence by electric car
leaving Vallejo 9:18 a. m. Luncheon will be served on
the grounds by the hostess, Mrs. Clara A. Hunt. Mem-
bers of the Society are especially requested to come from
1 to 4 o’clock. Boxes of plants for the exhibit should be
addressed to Box 102, St. Helena.

Sunday, May I . Sutro Forest. Meet at Ferry Build-
ing, San Francisco, 1:00 p. m., at entrance to upstairs
waiting room. Study of Polypodium Scouleri. Leader,
Mrs. Carlotta Case Hall.

Saturday - Sunday, May 1 4 - 15. Mt. Diablo Country
Club. South base Mt. Diablo. Leave Oakland, 40th and
Shatter, Saturday 1:80 or 4:80 p. m., Sunday 8:30 a. m.
Change cars at Saranap for Diablo Station. Bring sleep-
ing bag and food for entire trip. Leaders, Misses Rine-
hart and Scouvart.

Saturday - Monday, May 28 - 30. Annual Camping
Trip. Take 7:45 a. m. California Northwestern train
from San Francisco to Ukiah on Saturday, May 28.
Meals will be provided at The Terraces (Mr. Carl
Purdy’s garden) by the Society’s Commissary. Those
members desiring to go will be mailed a special circular
by the Chairman of the Camping Trip Committee, Mr.
George B. Furniss, 375 Staten Avenue, Oakland.

“THE GATHERING PLACE IS LANRICK MEAD.”

In case of change of time in timetables take train
nearest scheduled date whether before or after. Members
should carefully observe the wishes of the Leader in
charge. Gates should always be closed after one. The
picking of flowers should be strictly limited or for
botanical purposes. Members should see to it that their
invited friends do not plunder the fields and canons and
pick hundreds of flowers of a single species. Bear in
mind the conservation rules.

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SELMA BRANCH,

The schedule of trips would have gone to you sooner
but unfortunately for business I had at the meeting
some stinging nettle which kept claiming attention more
than the work in hand, since some of the members dis-
covered the spring action of the stamens and the scatter-
ing of pollen. All our members are so interested in the
botany of plants that it is a task to drag them away for
business details. I wish Dr. Jepson that you could be an
observer at our Thursday meetings. You would be grati-
fied with the earnest enthusiasm. Our meetings consist
of discussions and of work in classification, the members
getting right down to details with the lenses and tools.
Surely my dining-room table could never be spread with
more interesting feasts. The members must almost be
driven home! — H. P. Kelley, Mar. 3, 1921.

PERSONAL NEWS.

Dr. F. C. Newcombe, Professor of Botany in the
University of Michigan, is spending the winter at Stan-
ford University.

Dr. Helen Gilkey, Assistant Professor of Botany in
the Oregon State College, has been working at the Uni-
versity of California Herbarium during the last fortnight-

Professor Higginbottom, Director of the Gwalier Agri-
cultural Institution, Central India, recently delivered an
address before the University Agriculture Club on the
agriculture of India. The region described by Professor
Higginbottom is of immense interest to botanists as well
as agriculturists, because of the varied and numerous
indigenous species found there; the species being eleven
times as numerous in Central India as in the most favor-
ed portion of the United States.

Professor J. W. Gilmore, head of the Division of
Agronomy of the College of Agriculture, University of
California, has been appointed Exchange Professor to the
University of Chile. This appointment is in recognition
of a varied experience. He was once connected with
Cornell University; he helped establish an institution in
the province of Hupeh, China, for promoting modern
agricultural methods; he had experience with the fiber
industries in the Philippines; later he was President of
the College of Hawaii. Professor Gilmore will carry to
Chile a selected stock of cereals to be planted upon his
arrival and harvested before his departure.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

The following amendments were presented to and
voted by the Society at the regular meeting of March 12.

No. 1. The officers of the Society shall be a Presi-
dent, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Secre-
tary and Treasurer.

No. 2. The Council shall consist of the five officers.

No. 3. The article regarding dues to be changed
from the Constitution to the By-Laws.

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Verbal changes in other sections to conform to the
amendments were authorized. The Council recommends
that the membership ratify the above action. Send your
vote on a postal card to Miss A. E. Ehlelrs, 2741 Prince
Street, Berkeley.

THE ANNUAL DINNER.

( Concluded from last issue )

The Toastmaster then introduced Mr. Parish.

“I will tell you something,” said Mr. Parish, “of
the country where I have resided for many years —
Southern California. We are always known for our loy-
alty to the state, but that characteristic is very strongly
developed in Southern California. We think that is
about all there is of California. I will tell you why I
think the place I lived in, San Bernardino, has superior
advantages from the botanical point of view — because
there is accessible such a very great variety of floral
regions. From my old home one has about him something
like the valley of Sacramento in the general character of
the flora. You can start from there and in less than half
a day you come to a fine coniferous forest. Next day if
you wish you can take your auto and drive down to the
sea coast and there you have a great variety of marshes
and salt pools. If you have a little more time you can
see the insular flora on Catalina. It is very interesting
to see the difference in growth due to the environment.

Now we come home again and the next day we can
go out on the Mojave desert which is very high — three to
four thousand feet. The vegetation is peculiar. We see
the Joshua tree which is very grotesque and the various
sorts of cactus and many other peculiar plants. So you
could keep on for two or three days, getting continually
into new floral regions. Or you could go out on the
Colorado desert which is low — five hundred feet altitude.
Here are palms and many other kinds of vegetation.
Keep on that day and you will get down to the Mexican
border where the vegetation is very peculiar. ’ ’

The Toastmaster finally called upon Dr. Abrams.

“I looked forward to today and tonight with a great
deal of pleasure,” said Dr. Abrams, “and up to this
present moment I have enjoyed myself thoroughly. I
have been in Southern California, too, and I am tempted
to tell you one of my experiences there. I never expect
to have another such view as from the summit of the
San Bernardino Mountains. From the top of this range,
a little over eleven thousand feet, we were able to see, on
a day in July, the Southern Sierras very clearly. We
could see the Providence Mountains and also ranges in
Arizona. We could see Table Mountain in Lower Cali-
fornia, and Catalina Island. In other words we could see
the whole of Southern California.

‘ ‘I wish to tell you of one of the things we are
especially interested in at Stanford. Senator Stanford
began an arboretum as a part of his home grounds. It

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occupies about 200 acres. In addition we have at the
back of the campus a range of hills where we have an
oak forest and a few redwoods. This ridge we have set
aside as a natural history reserve. I would also like to
say that in our arboretum we are proposing to grow
especially plants from regions something like California,
such as Chile and the Mediterranean. We hope eventu-
ally to have a fairly good representation of our native
vegetation there. 5 ’

After the dinner the party adjourned to the large
reception room where the time was given to social con-
verse and to entertainment by the members.

THE AYAHS OAK.

A very large individual of the valley oak, Quercus
lobata, stands on the Old Kentucky Ranch, 12 miles west
of Paso Robles. The owner is Maurice B. Ayars. The
tree has recently been measured by several persons and
the measurements sent me by Mr. H. A. Greene. Of the
measurements, I take the most conservative:

Circumference at ground, 41 ft. 1 in.

Circumference 4 ft. above the ground, 28 ft. 3 in.

Diameter of crown, 132 ft.

Height of tree, 110 ft.

Nothing was reported about the health of the tree or
condition of the trunk bark, but in all probability it is
an unusual specimen and well worth visiting by any one
interested in the large oaks of California. — W. L. Jepson.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GOLD-BACK FERN.

• Diminutive specimens of this species (Pitrogramma
triangularis) are of frequent, occurrence in favorable
localities, often on the face of rocks or in crevices of
rock masses. These facts clearly indicate that its natural
propagation and dissemination is effected through the
germination of spores scattered by the wind from mature
plants, yet no account of the prothallia seems to have
been recorded.

No difficulty was experienced in finding an abundance
of the prothallia during February of the present season.
They were found on very damp soil and bits of rotted
wood and assumed a shallow cup-like form due to the
division of the prothallia into two ear-like lobes which
curve upward slightly. The young plants always arose
from the under surface and the first leaves were pro-
truded through the base of the sinues separating the
two lobes. Antheridia were found sparingly but no arche-
gonia and most of the young plants seemed to have
developed vegetatively, illustrating the well-known phe-
nomenon of apogamy. The first two leaves were usually
three- and four-lobed and resembled the pinnae of species,
of Adiantum but the succeeding ones assumed the
characteristic deltoid form of the mature state. — W. C.
Rlasdale.