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94 BOTANY OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



A single plant was seen among the yellow pines on the west slope of the Charles- 

 ton Mountains, near Clark's sawmill. It did not exeeed 1.5 meters in height, and 

 was conspicuously different from C, ledifoliitn in its small size, interlaced branchlets, 

 and minute leaves. Mr. Bailey afterwards collected flowering specimens in Death 

 Valley Canon, Panamint Mountains, at an altitude of 0,375 feet (No. 2010). 



Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt. in Torr. & Gr. Fl. i. 427 (1810) Type locality, 

 " Rocky Mountains, in alpine situations on the summits of the hills of Bear 

 River of Timpanagos, near the celebrated ' Beer Sprivgt,'" Beer Springs, now known 

 as Soda Springs, is situated in Bingham County, southeastern Idaho. 



This tree, the mountain mahogany, occurred on the west slope of tin- Charleston 

 Mountains, near Clark's saw-null ; in the Panamint Mountains, at and north of Pana- 

 mint Pass: on Mount Magruder (Merriam); and on the eastern slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada, along tho Hockott trail. It was characteristic of the belt of yellow pine 

 and the upper portion of the pinons. In the Panamint Mountains individual trees 

 wcro large and robust, and some grew to a remarkable size. A tree seen April 2, 

 1801, on their eastern slope north of Johnson Canon, had three main branches of 

 nearly equal size, springing from a single trunk close to the ground. The largest of 

 these branches measured 1.52 meters in circumference. The whole tree did not 

 exceed 4.5 meters in height. 



Cercocarpus parvifolius Nutt. in Hook. A:. Am. Bot. Beech. 337 (1840-41). Typr 

 locality, "on the Platte River." Douglas's specimens came from California, but as 

 both his and Nuttall's are the source of the description given by Hooker and Arnott 

 it seems best to adopt as the type those spociinens, Nuttall's, to which the name was 

 first applied. 



To CercocarpuB parvifolius are commonly referred a large variety of forms, coming 

 from widely separated localities, and not distinguished by any varietal names (the 

 Santa Barbara plant, usually known as variety glabra, alone excepted). Our plant is 

 a shrub from 2 to 3 meters high, with rhombic-obovate leaves 30 mm. or less long, 

 larger than in any form except the Santa Barbara plant; when young, densely silky 

 on the veins beneath and sparingly so above; when old, thick and coriaceous, and 

 apparently glabrous on both sides and glaucous beneath, but under a lens sparingly 

 tomentose above and densely white-toinentose beneath; and with the tails of the 

 achenia, when mature, 50 to 75 mm. long. 



This shrub is strictly characteristic, in tin 1 region traversed by the expedition, not 

 merely of the intramontane region of California, but of tho chaparral belt of that re- 

 gion. It was met with first on the south slope of the San Bernardino Mountains, 

 near Cujon Pass (No. 106), and was not seen again until we left the desert region by 

 way of Walker Pass. After that time it was found in abundance on the western 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada -wherever we entered the chaparral belt, as on the divide 

 between Kernville and Havilah (No. 1063), ami on the divide south of Walker Basin : 

 in the mountains south of Fort Tejon and east of Tejon Ranch ; aud along the eastern 

 branch of the Kaweah River up to the yellow pine belt. 



Toward the Mexican border certain forms of the species are found in the interior 

 as far east as Texas. 



Cowania mexicana Don. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiv. 575 (1825). Type locality, "in 

 Mexico." 



This shrub was supposed to have been seen in the winter on the west slope of tho 

 Charleston Mountains, and later on the east slope of the Inyos, between Keeler and 

 Jackass Spring, associated in both places with Kunzia glandalosa and in the former 

 with Fall agia paradora also, hut no specimens were collected. Dr. Merriam has re- 

 ported the plant in California, from the Panamint Mountains, north of Telei c »po 

 Peak; in Nevada, from the Charleston, Jnniper, Pahranagat, and Pahroc mountains, 

 Mount Magruder, Gold Mountain, Hungry Mill Summit, and the Highland Range; 

 and in Utah, from the Beaverdam Mountains, and the Santa Clara Valley, above St. 

 George. 



