OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 109 



the wild oat (Avena fatua), has not been limited in its range to the 

 western side of the Sierra Nevada, but is found through mucli of the 

 interior, from New Mexico to Washington Territory. On Guadalupe 

 it is found everywhere, and is more abundant than any other plant. 

 Another species of the same genus (E. moschatuni), provided with the 

 same contrivances for securing the dissemination and planting of its 

 numerous seeds, occurs less frequently both here and in California ; 

 probably because, requiring more moisture, it is unable to maintain 

 itself where the other will flourish. Another instance is the Oligomeris 

 suhidata of India, P>gypt, and the Canary Islands, found also in South- 

 ern California, and common eastward through the valleys of the Lower 

 Colorado and of the Gila to the Rio Grande, and in Northern Mexico. 

 It is difficult to account for the wide spread of this plant, if of recent 

 introduction, through a region so desert and sparsely inhabited. 



Besides these twelve species placed in the first group, there are two 

 others, also found in California, which are considered identical with 

 South American forms (Specularia bijlora and Amblyopappus pusillus), 

 possibly introduced from Chili or Peru, perhaps indigenous to both 

 regions. Their presence on Guadalupe would perhaps rather favor 

 the belief that they are native to our western coast, especially as five 

 other South American species, or forms of them, occur in the Guada- 

 lupe flora (^Tillcea minima., Gilia pusilla, Plantago Patagonica, Parie- 

 taria debilis, and JJuhlenbergia debilis), whicii are more or less frequent 

 in California and eastward in the centre of the continent, and are gen- 

 erally admitted to be native. 



There are, therefore, 97 pha3nogamous plants which may be considered 

 as indigenous. Of these, niue have a very extended range upon the 

 mainland ; * one (Parietaria debilis) from Southern California across 

 the continent ; all the rest common throughout California, and ranging 

 eastward to the Atlantic States. Two of these (^Galium Aparine and 

 Juncus biifonius) are also liuropean, and two (Plantago Patagonica 

 and Parietaria debilis) are found widely distributed through South 

 America. 



Far the largest group, as already stated, includes those species, 49 

 in number, which are common over a large part of the State of Cali- 

 fornia. Many of these extend northward as far as Oregon or Wash- 

 ington Territorv, or eastward through the Great Basin to the Rocky 



'»••"" ^v,..»^v^._, , ^^ V^.^.^,.,,,..V» „..»„„jj. 



* Sisymbrium canescens ; Sile.ne antirrhina ; Daucus pusillus; Galium Apariiic; 

 Dodecatheon Meadia ; Linaria Canadensis ; Plantago Patagonica ; Parietaria 

 debilis; Juncus bufonius. 



