140 ERYTHEA. 



Lavatera assurgentiflora grows in a depauperate condition on 

 Bird Island, for there is hardly any soil on this great rock — for 

 rock it is — of the shags and gulls. Yet specin)ens brought from 

 this islet to Avalon, have now reached a height of over twenty feet 

 and are always in fruit and flower. Just where Mr. Lyon found it 

 "growing luxuriantly" is a mystery. On a rock three miles distant 

 from "Bird Island," L. assurgentiflora grows in about the same 

 state as on "Bird Island." "Bird Rock" — sometimes called "Ship 

 Rock," from its resemblance to a ship in full sail — still seaward from 

 "Bird Island," has iiad no sign of plant-life for the last ten years; 

 so I am told by a reliable old fisherman, who makes frequent visits 

 there. There are no other islets about Catalina. 



On two sea-cliffs Cereus Emoryi grows. Opuntia Engelmanni var. 

 littoralis abounds. O. prolifera, included in Mr. Brandegee's list, I 

 have not seen. 



There is a luxuriant growth of Vitis Girdiana in one canon. 



In Avalon, Lycium Richii forms an impenetrable arbor-like net- 

 work, about one hundred feet in circumference and twenty-five feet 

 in height. Dr. Hasse says it has grown rapidly, since he first noted 

 it, over ten years ago. Its pale lavender flowers and small red 

 berries are always seen on its virgate branches. The largest 

 branches are six inches in diameter. 



A snow-white form of Orthocarpus purpurascens grows in several 

 localities, but does not differ except in color from the ordinary 

 form. 



There were two specimens of Mentzelia micrantha found last 

 season whose largest leaves measured seven inches from base to 

 apex — an unusual size. 



Beset with long white hairs which glisten in the sunlight, Scro- 

 phularia Californica is far from being the "homely weed" it is on 

 the mainland. Its virgate, flowering branches are two feet long and 

 rise from four to six feet a})ove one's head. 



The blue-purple flowers of Solanum Xanti var. Wallacei, 

 observed in eight or ten localities, are about two inches in diameter. 

 Mr. Lyon speaks of its black fruit being edible; I can learn of no 

 one having eaten it, save two little boys of Vicente's — an old-time 

 fisherman — and they were quite ill in consequence. I must except 

 Vicente himself, who can eat two or three berries without any ill 

 effects. 



