ZOEK 
VoL. V- MAY, 1903. No. 9. 
FLORA OF THE PROVIDENCE MOUNTAINS. 
The Providence Mountains are situated on the Mojave Desert 
near to its eastern boundary and to Arizona. _ Usually on maps 
“Providence Mts.’’ cover a large extent of territory and include 
several disconnected ranges, but by the few residents of the 
vicinity the name Providence Mt. is applied to a mountain about 
twenty miles long, less than ten miles wide and 7000 ft. elevation 
above sea level, lying thirty miles north of the station of Fenner 
onthe Atlantic and Pacific Railway. ‘The surrounding country 
from the high peaks of this mountain looks like an ocean studded 
with many islands, large and small, the dry sandy plain of the 
Mojave representing the water, and the mountains standing ten, 
twenty or thirty miles apart, the islands. Providence Mountain 
is one of the largest of the Eastern Mojave region. It is very 
rough and rocky; much of the rock being a form of limestone in 
which rich silver mines have been found. 
The average rainfall must be low and my collection was made 
at a time following an unusually small precipitation of the pre- 
vious summer and winter. Not an annual was seen along the 
railway between Bagdad and The Needles, and only a few 
appeared in the cafions of the mountains. The especial interest 
attached to the collection from this locality is the expected 
numerous additions to the Flora of California of plants whose 
habitat is Arizona and Southern Utah. Very few botanists have 
brought plants from this region and the small number noticed in 
various publications were collected by Dr. J. G. Cooper and 
_ Edward Palmer. 
T’he mountain is difficult to explore on account of the scarcity 
of water, and it was necessary to work from dry camps. The 
May 22, 1903. 
