NOTES CONCERNING THE COLLECTION OF PLANTS 
MADE BY XANTUS AT CAPE ST. LUCAS AND 
VICINITY. 
BY T. S. BRANDEGEE. 
The list collected by L. J. Xantus de Vesey, which was published 
by Dr. Gray in the Proceedings of the American Academy, con- 
tains one hundred and twenty-one species. The Euphorbiacez 
were determined, and the new species described by Dr. George 
Engelman, and the many other new species by Dr. Gray. 
Xantus is remembered to-day by many people of the region; some 
of his guides are still living, and it is not difficult to obtain informa- 
tion concerning his routes of travel. His plants were collected be- 
tween August, 1859, and February, 1860; the most favorable time 
of the year botanically, as the August and September showers of 
the rainy season cover the ground with short-lived annuals, and 
cause the dry and leafless shrubs to burst into leaf and flower, the 
whole landscape losing its ashen-gray appearance and becoming 
bright green. He collected at Cape St. Lucas, San José del Cabo, 
Miraflores and vicinity, and also visited Todos Santos and the high 
mountains of the interior. The mountain collection is said by Dr. 
Gray to have “unfortunately been lost.” The collection from the 
Cape, and other places, is certainly small, and does not contain one- 
quarter of the flora of the region, but Mr. Xantus collected in many 
branches of natural history, and some of them seem to have re- 
ceived more attention than botany. 
San José del Cabo is now the port of entry for the region about 
the Cape, and the much smaller settlement, Cape San Lucas, is 
tributary to it, as are also the villages of Miraflores, Agua Caliente 
and Santiago. At the time of Xantus, Cape San Lucas was the 
steamer landing, and the whole neighboring region was called by 
that name, but San José del Cabo, twenty miles distant, must always 
have been much the larger place, for it is situated near the mouth 
of the San José River, a running stream of good clear water that 
irrigates the sugar and cotton fields and orange groves of a broad 
valley many miles long, containing a large population when com- - 
pared with the small cluster of houses known as Cape San Lucas. 
Xantus remained some time at San José, and probably most of the 
collection which laid the foundation of the botany of this region 
