204 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



them forth in the month of March, and mature and cast them off 

 in September. But last autumn we were visited 1^ very early and 

 continuous rains, accompanied b.v warm weather; insomuch that 

 this particular shrub in November unfolded its new leaves, and 

 showed its flower buds. By the beginning of January, when the 

 flowers had appeared, there came suddenly a very marked change 

 in the temperature. The frosts killed the flowers; but the young 

 leaves, barely full grown, seemed uninjured; but as late as Februa- 

 ry they turned red, and fell, as they are wont to do in autumn. 

 Now, in the middle of March, they are appearing again, as boldly 

 and vigorously as if nothing unusual had happened. 



It is remarkable that no other of the ten or fifteen species of 

 deciduous shrubs, inhabiting these same banks, were similarly af- 

 fected by the season. Ribes Menziesii, Pursh, which is about the 

 earliest to respond to the call of spring, and also the earliest to 

 drop its foliage, remained wholly unmoved by the extraordinary 

 vernal influences of last October and November, and is now in 

 flower at its usual date; and the same is true of all the rest, with 

 the single exception of Symphoricarpus racemQSUS, Miehx. This 

 shrub unfolded its leaves in November; but the subsequent frosts 

 neither killed, nor yet matured them; their growth was only tem- 

 porarily checked; and although it was for two months, they have 

 lately attained their full size, and the shrub will flower at its usual 

 time. 



Of Anihemis Cotula, L.. it is said in Bot. Cal. I. 401, that it is 

 "sparingly found along roadsides: introduced, but not yet com- 

 mon. 1 ' That was six or seven years ago; and now it is fairly abun- 

 dant — too much so — whitening not only waysides, but waste 

 grounds everywhere almost on the exst side of San Francisco Bay. 

 Moreover, like death, it has all seasons for its own, in California, 

 for it may be found in flower eveiy month in the year. 



Although I have seen no specimens, I have it from two author- 

 ities whici 1 deem wholly unquestionable, that the common fox- 

 glove (Digitalis purpurea) is not only thoroughly naturalized, but 

 abundant far inland, in the country back of Humboldt Bay. 



The most interesting waif which I have detected in the San 

 Francisco region is a Hemizonia, one of the tarweeds, peculiar to 

 this coast, which I found in a single specimen, on the Oakland pier 

 in the summer of 1S81. Being wholly distinct from all the species 

 of its genus known to me, I made specimens, preserving every 

 branch of the single, large plant; supposing, nevertheless, that it 

 would prove to be some common species of the south part of the 

 state, which had found its way hither by ship or rail. After keep- 

 ing my specimens nearly two years, and having meanwhile collect- 

 ed and published half a dozen new ones of the same genus, I late- 

 ly made a careful examination of this my neglected ballast waif, 

 and found that it was also an undegetibed species. I immediately 



