344 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 
BUXACEAE. Box Family. 
Simmondsia californica Nutt. JOJOBA. 
The “jojoba,” as it is known in Mexico, ranges mainly in the Lower Sonoran Zone, 
reaching southward along the basal slopes of the mountains from San Diego, Califor- 
nia, and the Colorado Desert into Sonora and Lower California and becoming less 
abundant near La Paz and on Carmen and Espiritu Santo islands. A species appar- 
ently the same was described by Kellogg from Cedros Island under the name Sim- 
mondsia pabulosa. Dr. J. A. Veatch, the collector, in notes accompanying the de- 
scription of Kellogg, says: “Growing in the ravines as well as in the crevices and 
fissures of nearly perpendicular cliffs. Fruit generally abundant, ripening in July 
and August, has the taste of a chestnut, with aslight bitterness. The goats and deer 
of the island are exceedingly fond of both the fruit and leaves and seem to live mostly 
upon them.”’ 
Few shrubs were as abundant or generally distributed along so much of our route. 
It was first seen in a dry rocky canyon near the eastern base of the Cocopah Mountains. 
Near the west coast it was found as far north as the Valley of Guadalupe, north of 
Ensenada, and thence upward along the basal slopes of the Sierra del Pinal and San 
Pedro Martir mountains to 840 meters at La Huerta and 900 meters near San Antonio. 
Along the open bottom of Windy Canyon on the east slope of the San Pedro Martir 
Mountains it was noted as high as 1,140 meters. It is associated with Covillea glu- 
tinosa throughout much of its range and, like it, extends from the desert east of the 
high mountains through San Matias Pass into Trinidad Valley on the west slope; but 
it reaches its greatest abundance near the center of its range between San Fernando 
and San Ignacio, in the extremely arid central section of the Peninsula. It grows 
as a shrub 1.2 to 2.5 meters high. The evergreen leaves are thickened and leathery; 
the flowers and fruit seem to be produced irregularly throughout the year. Speci- 
mens in fruit or flower, or both, were obtained as follows: Ensenada, February 28; 
La Huerta, June 2; Trinidad Valley, June 16; Jaragudy, September 9; Agua Colorada 
to Cerro Colorado, December 15; Espiritu Santo Island, February 7. 
ANACARDIACEAE. Cashew Family. 
Pachycormus discolor (Benth.) Coville. CopaLquin. Prater 118, A, B. 
This species, like dria columnaris, represents a monotypic genus confined to Lower 
California. The two are associated in the extremely arid central section of the Penin- 
sula and by their abundance, large size, and striking appearance. They, together 
with other strange desert forms, make that region seem a wonderland of plant mon- 
strosities. The impression that we were traversing an unreal world was especially 
strong during our night journeys, when the contorted trunks of the copalquin assumed 
still more fantastic shapes in the moonlight. 
The species was first seen by us near Agua Dulce, a few miles south of Onyx, and 
was very abundant in suitable situations along the route southward to Magdalena 
Bay, where it was first discovered during the voyage of the Sulphur. It was found 
to be at home on the stony slopes of desert mountains at all elevations up to about 
600 meters, usually disappearing as we ascended the higher, lava-covered mesas 
and rugged ridges along the backbone of the Peninsula, and was less abundant on 
sandy plains. It grows as a short-trunked tree, varying from 1.8 to 4.5 meters, very 
crooked, and tapering rapidly from the ground upward. The species apparently 
reaches its greatest development,on the basal slope of the Santa Clara Mountains, 
near the coast west of San Ignacio, where a number of trees with a basal trunk diam- 
eter of a meter were seen. During the dry season most of the trees are leafless, but 
they may produce flowers. Specimens in flower were obtained at Jaragudy, Septem- 
