DR. HENRY N. BOLANDER, BOTANICAL EXPLORER. 103 



capacity took him over much of the State, and he was thus enabled 

 to collect at Truckee, Sierra Valley (where he visited J. G. Lem- 

 mon), Yreka, San Diego, and St. Julian; on April 12, 1873, he 

 ascended Cuyamaca Mountain, near the latter place, and passed 

 through San Felipe Canon to the desert. On his return trip he 

 visited Los Angeles, San Simeon Bay, where Pin us insignis forms 

 extensive groves, and many other localities. 



In systematically-directed exploration of the State Bolander was 

 preceded only by Brewer. What a field was theirs ! Very many 

 species, it is true, had been made known, but hundreds of others of 

 our characteristic trees, shrubs, and herbs had not been discovered, 

 and it may be said, and be very near the truth, that the best of 

 California's botanical heritage was yet to be exploited. And con- 

 sider that heritage! The gang plow, the ax of the logger, the 

 burning brand of the sheepman, had scarcely initiated the pro- 

 cesses of transformation and destruction that attend the westward 

 steps of the Anglo-Saxon. So remarkable was the annual vegeta- 

 tion of the Sacramento Valley plains that scarcely a professional 

 man whose travels led him across the valley, nor even a teamster 

 of the mining freight wagons of the period, will not, at a word, 

 grow reminiscent of that scene of prodigality in the vernal season. 



Naturalists rarely expect a first-rate collector to divide his atten- 

 tion between phrenogamous and cryptogamous plants ; even a 

 capable moss collector has most frequently a poor eye for fungi or 

 algaa. To this general rule Bolander was a notable exception. 

 But concerning his versatility in this regard extracts from the 

 writings of his correspondents may well be given here. 



Duplicates of his collection of mosses were sent to Leo Lesque- 

 reux, who, as being primarily responsible for the direction of his 

 youthful scientific tastes, may speak first. The extract which 

 follows is taken from the Transactions of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, 1869 : " Recently a young botanist, Mr. Hy. N. 

 Bolander, formerly of Columbus, Ohio, having taken up his resi- 

 dence at San Francisco, has given particular attention to the study 

 of the Californian mosses, and in less than one year has collected 

 as many species as all the other collectors together. Mr. Bolauder's 

 contribution is rendered particularly interesting to bryological 

 science, not only by the number of species, but by the great care 



