214 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[July. 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



LOWER CALIFORNIA BOTANY. 



BY CHAS. H. SHINN. 



Dr. C. C. Parry is doing a good deal too, in the 

 way of exploration of the Pacific coast. In the 

 Spring of 1882, he made a journey into the pen- 

 insula of Lower California. Starting from San 

 Diego, last winter, as he writes to a San Francisco 

 paper, he repeated this journey, taking however 

 a somewhat different course, and extending his 

 journey further. The party of six persons, includ- 

 ing two ladies, proceeded to Encenada, six miles 

 South of the Mexican line. After four days jour- 

 ney they reached Sanyal, on All Saints' Bay, and 

 from here made excursions in various directions. 



Dr. Parry says that the new horse-chestnut 

 ^^sculus Parryi, found last year, was abundant and 

 beautiful. A Manzineta with willow-shaped leaves, 

 though referred to the Mexican Arctostaphylos 

 polifolia, is perhaps distinct, and is very orna- 

 mental. The new wild rose, Rosa minutifolia, was 

 abundant, and has aroused so much interest abroad 

 that it is now to be introduced into cultivation. It 

 has minute foliage covering the branches closely, 

 is of low-spreading growth, and shows pink or 

 white flowers on a glandular mossy cup. A good 

 deal is expected of it when brought under scientific 

 treatment. 



A pecuhar cactus that Dr. Parry speaks of as 

 found on this journey, is that species of Cereus that 

 Dr. Engelmann proposes to call C. guminosus, 

 because of its furnishing a water-proof varnish, 

 used by the natives. It grows in a discordant and 

 miscellaneous manner, sprawling over the ground, 

 its large joints being unable to uphold themselves. 

 The fruit is said to resemble the strawberry, and to 

 be delicious ; so of course, there are Indian festas, 

 at a great rate when it is in its prime. The century 

 plant seen here is Agave Shawii, a handsome 

 species with orange-hued flowers on a thick stalk, 

 densely clustered. Tl^, as other species, fur- 

 nishes the mezcal, ancMalso fiber. Rumex hy- 

 m^nosepalus, a native dcmk, that the natives call 

 Canai argie, or sour ster^, has, it is said, been 

 found to contain eighty per cent, of tannic acid, in 

 its dried tubers. It is abundant in the sand of the 



dry river beds, and may prove of considerable 

 commercial value. Dr. Parry evidently thinks 

 that the resources of this peninsula have been 

 unduly neglected, and looks forward to better days 

 for "Baja California." 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Expedition to Cape Horn. — The French 

 government is fitting out an expedition exclusively 

 for scientific discovery to Cape Horn. P. Hariot, 

 a student of the celebrated Van Tieghew of the 

 museum of Natural History at Paris, is to have 

 charge of the Botanical Department. He is said 

 to be comparatively young, and full of ardor, and 

 botanists of France are calculating on a good 

 feast of riches from the exploration. 



Destruction of Rare Native Plants. — Since 

 travelling is so fashionable, and people can get to 

 the most inaccessible spots of former times, rare 

 plants are being everywhere destroyed. Societies 

 for the preservation of wild flowers, are being 

 formed in Switzerland, and other European 

 countries. 



The Annual Insect Crop. — It is worthy of 

 note that on the first appearance of an insect in 

 any locality, they seem to increase in great num- 

 bers from year to year ; but after this the numbers 

 every year seem about the same. Mr. Moore, of 

 Concord, Mass., has noticed of the Rose-bug : 

 "As long ago as I can remember I saw them 

 as thick as they are now. In 1823 John Lowell 

 described an apple tree as covered with them, and 

 about the same time Dr. Green, of Marshfield, 

 gathered eighty in his hand, from a rose bush, at 

 one grab." This is about the general experience. 



Creeping Arums. — In our country we know 

 plants of the Arum family chiefly from the Indian 

 Turnip of our woods, or from the Richardia 

 /Ethiopica or calla lily of our greenhouses. In 

 tropical countries they send out rootlets from the 

 stem, and these enter the old or dead bark of trees, 

 and often climb to great heights in this manner, 

 and give a very peculiar character to the forest 

 scenery. We give here a representation of one of 

 these climbing arums, Pothos aurea, which is be- 



