SHORT ARTICLES. 75 



Cheilanthes Californica, so common in Southern California, has 

 long been known in Marin County from a single locality. This 

 is on rocks facing westward, near the head of one of the main 

 branches of Sequoia Cafion on Mt. Tamalpais. In February 

 of this year, I found it quite abundant on the rocks at the 

 falls where the Little Carson Creek heads. These rocks faced the 

 north west, and the Cheilanthes grew where the soil of the hillside 

 met the rocks and also in the crevices of the rocks. In this locality 

 and along the creek below are to be found almost all the ferns 

 credited to Marin County. Cheilanthes myriophylla grew in the 

 crevices of the same rocks where Cheilanthes Californica flourished, 

 and near by were Pellsea densa, Pellsea Ornithopus, Pelloza andro- 

 medssfolia, Gymnogramme triangularis, Adiantum emarginaium, and 

 Polypodium vulgare. In the cafion below were the ferns always 

 found in such places, as Woodwardia radicans, Asplenium Filix- 

 fcemina, Aspidmm munitum, Aspidium rigidum, Pteris aquilina and 

 Adiantum pedaium. 



SHORT ARTICLES. 



Is Xerophyllum tenax a Septennial ? — There is a popular 

 belief, that this plant is a septennial. My experience leads me to 

 think that there is a basis of truth underlying the belief. I know 

 positively, that this species was in bloom on Mount Tamalpais, Marin 

 County, California, early in May> 1891, and I have a specimen then 

 given me by Mrs. Brandegee. During the last five years scarcely 

 a month has passed, that I have not been over the mountain in 

 localities^ where the Xerophyllum was abundant, and I have always 

 been on the lookout for the blooming plants. 



On May 1st of this year my long search was rewarded. From 

 the summit of the ridge, on the Throckmorton -Trail, I saw the tall 

 spikes of creamy flowers growing, where the railroad - camp was 

 situated during the building of the road. Others have reported it 

 from Mill -Valley and as visible from the Mount Tamalpais train 

 elsewhere; so it must be in bloom quite extensively on the mountain. 

 It is almost exactly seven years to a day since my first knowledge 

 of the plant in bloom, and during the interval I have neither seen 



