128 S. B. PARISH 



albomarginata, Sida hederacea and Datura meteloides. There was, 

 also, another and handsomer Datura, namely D. discolor. This 

 has a white corolla, with a narrow tube, 4 inches long, marked 

 within by five purple bands, and a funnelform limb 2 inches in 

 diameter. In the Synoptical Flora Gray questions whether this 

 plant is indigenous in the Fort Yuma region, and the conditions 

 of its occurrence do not enable one to determine the question 

 with confidence. But if it is not a native, its introduction must 

 certainly date back to Indian days. A third species, D. quercifolia, 

 is credited by the Flora to these bottoms, but I did not see it. 

 A very showy purple-flowered Aster, A . canescens var. tephrodes, 

 was common on dryer banks. 



The following February the pools and moist basins were dry, 

 and all these plants had disappeared, or were only recognizable 

 in withered remains. In their places Spheralcea Fendleri was 

 beginning to bloom, and a perennial Potentilla was nearly in bud. 



Above the Fort the river was bordered by a wide bar of silt, 

 evidently deposited by the floods of the previous spring. It was 

 from 2 to 5 feet above the present low stage of the river, which 

 was now undermining and caving away its margins. Back of 

 this was a higher bar, probably as much as five years old, thickly 

 set with willow and cottonwood sapplings, beneath which grew a 

 carpet of Scirpus speciosus. This sedge is abundant in the bot- 

 toms, and varies in its habit in accordance with its exposure to 

 direct sunlight. In the shade of the thickets it throws up soli- 

 tary, slender, and elongated culms, bearing few-rayed unbels; 

 along the banks of the old channels, where the light is strong, it 

 grows in clumps, with tall, stout culms, and large, many-rayed 

 umbels; while the form growing in the intense sunlight of the 

 bare sand bar, is similar to the last, except that the culms are 

 short, and the umbels more condensed. 



There were but few willow or cottonwood seedlings on the re- 

 cent bar, probably because it had been formed subsequent to 

 the season when these trees fill the air with their wind-borne 

 seeds. But of herbs there was an abundance, and a remarkable 

 variety. A considerable number of them had never been reported 

 from California, and a consideration of the known distribution of 



