FLORA OF BOULDIN ISLAND. 
BY KATHARINE BRANDEGEE. 
In the centre of the great valley of California, where all its 
waters meet at what was once the deepest part of the immense 
Jake contained by the encircling rim of mountains, there is a 
large area embracing many hundreds of square miles which is 
but little above the level of the sea. This meeting of the waters 
is a labyrinth of tortuous channels embracing green islands of all 
sizes, from the islet of a few rods, not yet firmly anchored and 
rising and falling with the tide, to such bodies of land as Grand 
and Sherman Islands many miles in length and breadth. Through 
the winding channels the river steamers and fishing sloops pick 
their way with ease, though the traveler, seeing them for the first 
time, becomes completely bewildered. The islands are all of the 
same formation, a pure and exceedingly fine vegetable mold 
arising from the decay of countless generations of ‘‘ Tule’’ and 
- without trace of sand or gravel. They are all either entirely or, 
in great part below the level of the water, and in order to be 
habitable must have strong levees watched and maintained with 
‘sedulous care. ‘The unleveed islands often have cattle pastured 
upon them, even in cases where the sod is so thin that the 
~ animals spend a considerable part of their time scrambling out of 
the ooze, into which the breaking of the crust has let them fall. 
The vegetation, however, though of a lush and vivid green, is 
coarse, and cattle do not at first thrive very well upon it. 
Of those enclosed by levees and in cultivation, Bouldin Island 
is a good example and is of more interest to botanists than any of 
the others, for upon it, in the autumn of 1872, Mr. C. D. Gibbes 
collected the plants described by Dr. Kellogg in the Proceedings 
of the California Academy of Sciences under the names of Hibis- | 
cus Californicus, Evigeron discoidea, Solidago elongata var. micro- 
cephala, Helianthus giganteus vat. insulus and Hedeoma purpurea. 
The island has an area of about a dozen square miles and is 
owned by four men, who lease the lands on shares to Italians, 
- Portuguese and Chinese. It is surrounded by the Mokelumne 
River and its sloughs. The levee is built of clay dredged from 
