OF AETS AND SCIENCES. Ill 



two Californiau, one of these also in the Guadalupe flora ; the other 

 (ffesperelaa) bearing no close resemblance to any other member of 

 the Olive family. On the other hand, the palm (^Braltea (?) edulis), 

 conspicuous on the island as the only representative of a tropical flora, 

 is probably less nearly related to the Central Mexican genus to which 

 it is provisionally referred than to the genus Livistona of Australia. 

 A congener of the Guadalupe species has recently been detected by 

 Dr. Palmer in the canons of the Tantillas Mountains, near San Diego. 



As respects the cryptogamic vegetation, of the half a dozen ferns all 

 are frequent in California, one peculiar to the southern part of the 

 State, another found throughout North America and Europe. Of the 

 eleven mosses, two are strictly Californiau species, seven are common 

 everywhere in the United States and Europe, and two are European 

 species which had not previously been detected in America. Of the 

 four HepaticcB, three are Califoruian, and one is considered new. 



Looking now at the relative proportions which the larger orders 

 bear to each other in this limited flora as compared with the flora of 

 the Great Basin (the only at all similar one of which we have the data 

 for comparison), we find that the jjrojaortions which the CompositcB and 

 LegumiiKtsce bear to the whole (17 and 7 per cent.) are identical in 

 both ; while in the next largest orders, the Cruciferce, Scrophulariacece, 

 and Graminece, the proportions in the two floras are very nearly the 

 Barae. The most conspicuous discrepancies are the almost entire 

 absence in Guadalupe of Cyperacecs, PoJygonacece, Rosacece, and Lilia- 

 cecs, and a less decided preponderance of Solanacece, Borraginacece, and 

 Hydrophyllacece. These differences are largely due evidently to the 

 character of the surface of the island, though the want of any repre- 

 sentatives of the large characteristic western genera, Eriogonum and 

 Astragalus, is remarkable. 



Reference should be made to the plants which by their abundance 

 and prominence give character to the vegetation. Among these the 

 " sage-brush " and " grease-woods " of the valleys of the Basin are duly 

 represented by an Ay-temisia and an Atriplex, which share with a 

 Fvanseria in covering large tracts, and in protecting the soil and the 

 smaller annuals from the winds and sun. Trees are numerous over 

 much of the island, chiefly coniferous : a pine, belonging to a Southern 

 Californian species, but peculiar in some of its characters ; a juniper, 

 common in California ; a cypress, similar to and perhaps identical 

 with a Mexican species which extends into California ; and a small 

 oak, which is common throughout the State. To these is to be added 



