it prefers the dry sandy soils and while it also tlowers with 

 the other in tlie spring time it continues flowering on through 

 the autumn. Dr. Ilasse reports it from Santa ]\loniea and says 

 it has only appeared recently. 



Mr. Parish writes: "It is a very common weed growing 

 by waysides and waste places and to some extent in cultivated 

 ground tliroughout the entire San Bernardino Valley and ex- 

 tending well up into the adjacent canyons, say to 3000 ft. alt." 

 There has been some confusion in the identification of the Eu- 

 ropean mustard here and the mistakes have not been all by 

 amateurs, either. Some of those gathered by the writer have 

 been named B. alba, a plant so far as I know not at present 

 found here. Dr. Hasse found B. alba 20 years ago near Santa 

 ]\Ionica, but has not seen it since. Orcutt mentions it as near 

 San Diego. Dr. Robinson in the Synopical Flora mentions it as 

 locally established near San Bernardino but in the supplement 

 (page 469) says "all reference to B. adpressa should be struck 

 out. The San Bernardino plant referred to this species having 

 proved to be immature Sisymbrium officinale Scop." Obviously 

 Dr. Robinson had not been supplied with material representing 

 B. adpressa. The Smithsonian Institute, apart from the speci- 

 mens sent by the writer, had only one other from the United 

 States, that having been forwarded by i\Ir. Parish from Potato 

 Canyon near San Bernardino. The natural tendency of most 

 collectors to neglect the more common weeds makes the large 

 herberia of the Eastern museums a totally inaccurate index of 

 the number or distribution of the more homely species. 



"To Point a Moral and Adorn a Tale" 



The impossibilities of yesterday are the eonnnon places of 

 today and the path of progress is now paved with the stones 

 that pseudo-scientists considered impassable obstructions. AYhen 

 it was first proposed to cross the Atlantic by steam one eminent 

 mathematician proved conclusively (on paper) that no ship 

 could carry coal enough to generate steam to carry itself across. 

 Yet it was done. Scientific proof was frequently given that no 

 heavier-than-air machine could fly. Noav it is an every-day 

 occurrence. So many apparently impossible things occur in na- 

 ture that we had supposed no scientist admitted the word impos- 

 sible now. AVe were apparently wrong, however. When Ave 

 published in last issue of the Bulletin the ])hotograph and de- 

 scription of a specimen of Brownea hybrida flowering directly 

 from the seed we did so because the matter was one of novelty 

 to us and probably of sufficient variety to interest other bot- 

 anists, though such a thing must have happened many times 

 before. For what is, has been and Avill be. A copy of the 



12 



