226 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Gkay's Botanical Text Book. — The small edition which was print- 

 ed in June last having been exhausted, a second issue has been pub- 

 lished, bearing the date of 1880. In it various typographical errors 

 and small oversights have been corrected.- The author will be obliged 

 to botanists who use the book to point out any errors they may detect, 

 that they may be hereafter corrected. 



Common and Troublesome Weeds near Santa Barbara, Cal. — Mrs. 

 Bingham, of Sta. Barbara, California, l)eing asked what were the most 

 common and troublesome weeds in that region, responds as follows: 



"The most persistent weed, in cultivated grounds, is Molva borealis^ 

 which grows sometimes eight or ten feet high. It dies during the 

 dry season, where the ground is not irrigated, but whenever the 

 ground is moistened for a few hours, the seeds will germinate. 



Solanum nigrwrn grows everywhere, blooming and bearing fruit the 

 year round; very difficult to eradicate and troublesome. 



Brassica nigra covers thousands of acres of pasture land, rendering 

 it almost entirely worthless. 



The old Californians have a legend, that when the country w^as 

 ceded to the United States, the Catholic Fathers were so enraged that 

 they determined to curse the ground, and so scattered broadcast the 

 Malva and mustard. 



Stellaria media is abundant after the first rains. Calandrinia Men- 

 ziesii is troublesome in wet weather. Matricaria discoidea is com- 

 mon. A variety of Rumex abounds in wet weather. Verbena officina- 

 lis is common in damp places all the year. 



Lepidium nitidum is common. Capsella Bursa-pastort's grows spar- 

 ingly in some places. Datura meteloides is common in some localities. 

 Silene gallica, Marrubiuni vidgare and Erodiuin cicutarium are also 

 common. Erodium moschatum and Medicago denticidata cover large 

 areas and are valuable for pasturage. Along water courses Plantago 

 major and P. lanceolota are seen in small quantities, and Nasturtium 

 officinalis grows in large j^atches where the ground is moist. Hemi- 

 zonia fascicularis covers uncultivated grounds in dry- weather and is 

 very troublesome. Bees make a very poor quality of honey from it. 

 In cultivated grounds in dry weather we have two varieties of Chen- 

 opodium and two or three of Ambrosia, also several other aj)etalous 

 plants which I cannot name. Eremocarpus setigerus is very abundant 

 in some localities in the dry season. 



. I have given you the most i^rominent troublesome plants, and if I 

 was as good a botanist as I would like to be, might tell you inore." 



Similar information from other districts is solicited. — A. Gray. 



