132 



BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSKl'M. 



As soon as this station was reached some of the animals and plants 

 peculiar to the San Diego or Pacific Coast Tract appeared, although 

 many of the desert forms ascended for some distance the canyons and 

 eastern slopes of the ('oast Range Mountains, a few of them actually 

 passing through the lowest gaps in the range to the Pacific side. 



Vegetation. — The traveler who has crossed the Colorado Desert 

 looks hack upon its wastes of sand, dotted with the creosote bush, 

 with a feeling of abhorrence, and views the sweltering cliffs at the 

 base of the Coast Range with favor, however grim and uninviting 

 they may appear to one approaching them from the opposite direc- 

 tion. The green tops of the yucca, and even the despised cactus, are 

 a positive pleasure to the eye; and if one is fortunate enough to find 

 a spring and a grove of fanleaf palms (Neowashingtonia filamentosa) 

 in the first canyon that he enters his contentment is complete. There 

 are no palms in the canyon through which the San Diego wagon road 

 passes; but its course is marked far out upon the sloping desert by a 

 line of tree yuccas {Yucca mohavensis Sargent), succeeded by desert 

 willows, mesquites, and cat's claws, at the mouth of the canyon, 

 which is choked with Hymenoclea, arrowwood, and Baccharis. 

 Growing upon the rocky walls of the canyon are the Zizyp/u/s and 

 Ephedra, besides Nolina parryi Watson, Agave deserti Engelmann, 

 Simmondsia calif ornica Nuttall, and the familiar choya, bisnaga, 

 and ocotillo. Here, also, Ave took a final leave of the indigo thorn, 

 whose fragrant, violet-colored flowers covered the white sand. 



Reptiles. — In the general region of the boundary, on the Colorado 

 Desert, between the Colorado River and the Coast Range (Monu- 

 ments Nos. 206 to±_ ;< .>). the following-named reptiles have been taken: 



Lizards. 



Dipsosaurus dorsalis (Baird and 



Girard). 

 Crotaphytus collaris (Say). 

 Crotaphytus wislizenii Baird and (Ji- 



rard. 

 Sauromalus ater Dumeril. 

 Callisaurus draconoides ventralis < Ilal- 



lowell). 



Snakes 



I ma rufopunctata Cope. 



I In mearnsi Stejneger. 



Uta stansburiana Baird and Girard. 



TJta symmetrica Baird. 



Sceloporus clarlcii Baird and Girard. 



Anota platyrhina (Girard). 



Eublepharis variegatus (Baird). 



Licit a a urn roseofusca Cope. 

 Lichanura orcutti Stejneger. 

 Zamensis flagellum flagellum (Shaw). 

 Pityophis catenifer (Blainville). 

 Chionactis occipitalis annulatus Ken- 

 nieol I. 



Eutwnia elegans marciana (Baird ;uu l 



Girard). 

 Crotalus adamanteus atrox (Bairdand 



Girard ). 

 Crotalus cerastes Hallowell. 



Station No. 85. Mountain Spring, San Diego County. California. 

 This station i> about halfway up the east slojw of the Coast Range 



