iv INTRODUCTOEY NOTE. 



sive region of the western edge of our continent. This paper also offers 

 a worthy and most desirable supplement to the " Botany of California," 

 of which one volume has been already published, while the other and 

 concluding one is now in the press. All the volumes and memoirs above 

 mentioned are to be received as a continuation, in part, of the work of 

 the Geological Survey, stopped by the Legislature in 1874. Permission 

 has been given to the late State Geologist by the Board of Regents of 

 the University of California, in whose hands the matter was left, to con- 

 tinue the publication of the Survey so far as it was in his power to do 

 so ; and in- this somewhat arduous undertaking he has received valuable 

 assistance from some of the liberal-minded citizens of San Francisco, to 

 whom he takes this opportunity of tendering his best thanks. 



J. D. WHITNEY. 



