FI.ORA 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 

 lake 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 Calif ornicus, Erigeron discoidea, Solidago elo7igata var. micro- 

 cephala, Helianthus giganteits var. insidus and Hedeonia 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 



