VOL. I.] The Wolverine in California. 303 



disposition of it, which is indicated by the places and conditions of 



' its growth. 



Matricaria 



abounds In these southern counties are such as to suggest that it 

 may be here a naturalized plant, although it cannot certainly be so 

 pronounced. It is very common in yards and by roadsides, and 

 about all sheep corrals it is almost certain to be plentiful. The same 

 suspicion attaches to Artemisia biennis, which I know of only as 

 a weed in cornfields, near Santa Ana. 



Perhaps Astragalus Hornii ought also to be included among the 

 doubtful plants. So far as I am aware it has been collected in this 

 region only by myself, and my station, two small roadside patches 

 near San Bernardino, is rather one for an introduced than a native 

 plant. They have not materially increased during the ten years 

 that I have observed them, and are now nearly destroyed by the 

 construction of a railroad. Still it is a species to be expected here, 

 as it has a known range from Bakersfield and Owen's Valley to 

 Southern Utah,* and has been recendy collected in the northern 



r 



part of Lower California.! Occurring thus on both sides of us it 

 will probably yet be found under less questionable circumstances 

 than at its present sole station. 



THE WOLVERINE {Gulo /usens) IN CALIFORNIA 



BY L. BELDING. 



I believe there is no record of the occurrence of this animal in 

 this State, though I have been aware of the fact since about the 

 year 1875', when Dr. Eels, the well known clergyman of Oakland, 

 Mr. Merrill of San Francisco, and myself, climbed up to Lake 

 Francis from Soda Springs on the north fork of the American 

 River. Upon reaching the lake three strange animals bounded from 

 near its margin up a steep hill to the base of basaltic cliffs in which 

 they disappeared. We were within about a hundred yards of them, 

 and I fired two loads of buckshot at them without apparent effect. 



One of the party suggested that they might be young bears, but 

 neither of us were able to name them satisfactorily. Afterward, 



•Bot. Cal., i, 150. 

 tBrandegee, PI. Baja Cal., 149. 



i 



