PLANT RECORDS OF AN EXPEDITION TO LOWER 
CALIFORNIA. 
By Epwarp A. GOLDMAN. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The list which is here published is based on a collection of plants 
made by Mr. E. W. Nelson and the author in the course of general 
exploration in the service of the Bureau of Biological Survey of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. The expedition upon 
which the collection was obtained occupied the period from April, 
1905, to February, 1906, during which the entire length of Lower 
California was traversed. Lack of time and of transportation facili- 
ties limited our collection to the more conspicuous and important 
species, mainly trees and shrubs. Herbarium specimens gathered by 
others and published records have been used to some extent, but no 
effort has been made to complete the list of Peninsular species, which 
would necessarily be very long, owing to diversified conditions of cli- 
mate and topography. The larger and economically more important 
native species are included as far as possible, the entries being accom- 
panied by data of collection and distribution. 
Although botanical collecting in Lower California began with the 
visit of H. M. S. Sulphur in 1839, comparatively little was known of 
the flora of the Peninsula until Dr. Edward Palmer visited the coast 
in 1887. 'T.S. Brandegee, landing at Magdalena Bay two years later, 
took up the work and prosecuted it at intervals in the field and in the 
herbarium during more than 13 years, greatly advancing our knowl- 
edge of the Peninsula flora, especially of the interior. The investi- 
gations of the various collectors have been largely restricted to par- 
ticular areas which, owing to accessibility, have been repeatedly 
revisited, while much of the mountainous interior, especially of the 
central section, remains entirely unknown. The work of Brandegee 
was centered in the Cape District from Magdalena Bay southward, 
including the Victoria Mountains, but he made an overland journey 
from Magdalena Bay to San Quintin and visited the high mountains 
of the northern part of the Peninsula. The other principal collect- 
ors—R. B. Hinds, of H. M. S. Sulphur; L. J. Xantus, Dr. J. A. Veatch, 
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