76 ERYTHEA. 



nor heard of its flowers. Dr. Behr remembers that it was in bloom 

 in 1884, having verified his recollection by a reference to some old 

 letters. 



There are many plants now growing on the mountain, that show 

 no sign of a scape; so all the plants can not be in bloom at once. 

 It will be interesting to note, whether or not these bloom next year. 

 Mrs. Brandegee remembers having seen it in two successive years, 

 and there is a specimen of a small plant collected by her on Mt. 

 Tamalpais in 1892, in the Herbarium of the California Academy of 

 Sciences. Miss H. A. Spaulding, also, remembers having seen it in 

 two successive years in the Santa Cruz Mountains; but the second 

 year the specimens were fewer and smaller. 



Dr. Behr, in his Flora of the Vicinity of San Francisco, writes as 

 follows concerning this species: — 



"This plant is remarkable by its flowering plentifully at certain 

 years and then disappearing altogether for a long period. This 

 circumstance is probably owing to the fact that the plant requires 

 a fixed age before flowering and then dies after having ripened its 

 seeds. We find the same peculiarity in many species of bamboo, in 

 some palms, viz., Corypha and in Agave, all of which plants are 

 annuals in a botanical sense, but require a number of years to com- 

 plete their biological cycle." 



During this year and the next, a careful observation of the plants 

 on the mountain ought to settle, to some extent, the doubt concern- 

 ing their length of life and time of blooming. It may be, however, 

 that some peculiarity of atmospheric or other environment during 

 certain years will stimulate these plants to bloom and that their 

 apparent periodicity is only a coincidence. — Alice Eastwood. 



Xevophylhmi tenax occurs, also, on Howell Mountain, Napa 

 County, California. The country people of that vicinity have had 

 their attention attracted to the plant, since it fruits "only once in 

 five years." There is a specimen of this species in the University 

 Herbarium from Cascade Tunnel, Northern Pacific Railroad, Wash- 

 ington, 3,300 feet altitude, 1897, communicated by Prof. \V. A. 

 Setchell with the note " blooms annually." — Ed. 



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