280 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 13 



foliage after the winter rains begin and blooms in March. By the end 

 of April the leaves have withered and most of the new growth has 

 died back to the club-like permanent branches. The plant remains ap- 

 parently lifeless during the summer and fall. 



The Coreopsis association is found in all soils, from the coarse, 

 shallow soils of the eastern bluffs, to the fine, deep soils of the terraces, 

 and on the lee slopes of the central ridge. However, as may be expected, 

 sea bluff plants enter the association of the bluffs, and grassland plants 

 enter the upper limits of the Coreopsis belt. Wherever openings, such 

 as trails or other clearings, appear in the Coreopsis the introduced plants, 

 as well as other plants of the grassland crowd in; but in unbroken 

 stands none of the grassland plants seem able to establish themselves. 

 Since Coreopsis, either singly or in small, scattered colonies with many 

 young plants, occurs in much of the grassland and seems to withstand the 

 competition very successfully, it is highly probable that the Coreopsis 

 association may ultimately replace most of the introduced grasses and 

 forbs, provided the island remains undisturbed over a sufficient length 

 of time. The Coreopsis association, thus, appears to be a climax for the 

 eastern terrace and the lower slopes of the ridge. Isolated Coreopsis 

 plants are to be found in every community on the island, except for 

 the wind-swept ridges and headlands. This would tend to support the 

 hypothesis that originally most of the present exotic grassland was 

 occupied by a scrub association, and that Coreopsis may have occupied 

 a dominant place in many of the low, suffrutescent plant communities. 



The Coreopsis association appears to have roughly the same environ- 

 ment as previously stated for the exotic grassland, except that the former 

 may also be found in coarse, shallow soils. Both seem to possess about the 

 same wind tolerance as the windier habitats contain neither Coreopsis 

 nor Hordeum and Avena. 



The Santa Barbara Song Sparrow {Melospiza melodia graminea 

 C. H. Townsend) seems to have a distribution on the island almost 

 coterminous with that of the Coreopsis association. Howell (1917, p. 

 81) states: "In the type locality the first of May, 1908, I found these 

 birds fairly swarming, flushing from the short scrub at my approach and 

 flitting to the top of nearby bushes." 



Canyons 



The short, shallow canyons offer a rather difficult problem as their 

 dominant vegetation shows little deviation from other parts of the 

 Coreopsis belt. The canyons appear young geologically, and their micro- 



