188 Palms of Baja Caltfornia. [ZOE 
In Pflanzenfamilien the genus is considered by Drude a sub- 
genus of Pritchardia. 
Much of the W. filifera now cultivated in California probably 
came from seed collected along the western edge of the Colorado 
Desert and Cantillas Cafion, a locality in Baja California, just 
below the boundary line near Campo. This palm is a native 
of the dry climate of the interior, generally growing on the 
eastern slope uf the mountains, where in the bottom of the cafions 
their roots will find plenty of water. I do not know a locality 
where they are found in a cafion running toward the western 
slope, but they may grow in such situations in Central Lower 
California, where so many plants of the Colorado Desert find their 
way to near the Pacific Coast. 
Washingtonia Sonore was described from specimens collected 
about Guaymas by Dr. Palmer, and it is not improbable that the 
species may extend northward along the Gulf of California to the 
region about the Rio Colorado, from which the first plants of 
W. filifera came. This palm grows also at Mazatlan and along 
the coast of the Cape Region of Lower California. On account 
of its love for the ocean breezes, it is a more suitable palm for the 
upper California coast than W. Jilifera from higher altitudes and 
a desert climate. At San José del Cabo the residents recognize 
two forms of W. Sonor@, which they name ‘‘Palma blanca” and 
“Palma rubra.” A way of distinguishing with certainty these 
two varieties is by cutting into the trunk and the color of the 
wood, white or reddish, is then evident. There seems tu be no 
other definite character by which the two varieties can be dis- 
tinguished. 
Erytheas are palms of much slower growth than the Washing- 
tonias. £. armata, or the blue palm, is abundant in Northern 
Lower California, growing in cafions or along the sandy bottom 
of dry streams after they leave the mountains, on both eastern 
and western slopes. 
£. edulis, the Guadalupe palm, is endemic upon Guadalupe 
Island. On the eastern slope of the island it is confined to the 
cations, but on the western slope it often covers large areas. 
