VOL. I. Naturalized Plants. 187 
the part of the country where it is such a common crop. At pres- 
ent it is perhaps best to consider it as a transient rather than asa 
permanent addition to the list of exotics. 
Cenchrus echinatus | hope I am right in regarding in the same 
way, although I do so with less confidence, as it is a pest well suited 
to our climate, and which sooner or later is almost certain to be 
troublesomely abundant. It is indigenous, to all appearances, as 
near us as Arizona, and its bur-like involucre affords it facilities for 
transportation not surpassed by any other member of the order. It 
is therefore rather a matter of surprise that it has not been hereto- 
fore reported from this State. Half a dozen vigorous plants were 
discovered this spring in an orchard near San Bernardino, no doubt 
the first offspring of a single head. Fortunately they were not yet 
in fruit, and were at once eradicated, but it is hardly to be hoped 
that this was the only point of infection. C. ¢riéudoides is mention- 
ed in the Botany of California, but without the naming of any sta- 
tion, and it is not known to occur in this part of the State. : 
Festuca Myurus is usually regarded as an exotic species, although 
Dr. Thurber must have felt some doubt regarding it, as he speaks 
of it* as only ‘‘ probably introduced.” It has a very extended 
range, not only on the Atlantic side of the continent but on the Pa- 
cific as well, where it is found from San Diego at least as far north | 
as Oregon. In southern California it presents no appearance of 
an introduced species, not occurring in cultivated grounds or about 
habitations, but abundantly through the foothills and mesas. It is 
perhaps hardly safe to claim it as indigenous, but if placed in the 
list of naturalized plants it must be with some doubt. 
Another doubtful species is Leersia oryzoides Swartz. The 
only California station from which this has been reported heretofore 
is Cache Creek, in the central part of the State, where it was col- 
lected by Bolander, under circumstances which inclined him to 
‘‘regard it as introduced.’ I am acquainted with it only along 
the edges of a single stream, at Kehl’s Mills, near San Bernardino, 
where I first observed it in 1883, in no great quantity. It has now 
extended down the stream for more than a mile, sometimes choking 
the current by its abundance. Unless further observation should 
« 
*Bot. Cal., ii, 316. 
tBot. Cal., ii, 262. 
