NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SHASTA PLANTS. 



Tliestudy of tliejj;eogTa[)hic distribution of animals and plants in the 

 Sierra-Cascades can not be completed until authentic lists of species 

 are brought together from several important localities from which at 

 present no data are available. The need of such lists, with detailed 

 altitudes and zone i)ositions, is particularly urgent in the case of 

 detached mountains, as Shasta and Lassen, which are separated from 

 each other and from the continuous ranges on either side by gaps 

 low enough to be broadly filled by Transition zone species. The Boreal 

 species of these mountains, being thus comi)letely cut off from the 

 nearest corresponding colonies, form islands in the long Boreal chain 

 that stretches southward from British Columbia to southern California. 



The present imperfect list of the plants of Mount Shasta is oifered 

 as an humble contribution toward the needed material. It is based 

 almost wholly on my own personal observations and is known to be 

 far from complete. More pressing work along other lines made it 

 impracticable to give much time ^o plants, and the date of arrival at 

 the mountain (the middle of July) was so late that many of the early 

 flowering species had disappeared. The ]ioreal species, owing to their 

 greater importance, have received most attention; the Transition zone 

 species least. In the case of Alpine and Hudsouian species it is believed 

 that few remain to be added. 



I am indebted to ]Miss Lewanna Wilkins for collecting and pressing 

 most of the plants preserved during the first six weeks of our stay on 

 the mountain; and to John II. Sage for the use of a collection made 

 by him during the same period. The plants obtained subsequent to 

 August S were collected by Vernon Bailey and myself 



Although two seasons' field work in the Cascade IJange had given 

 me a certain acquaintance with the more conspicuous plants common 

 to these mountains and Blount Shasta, I was still much handicapped 

 in the determination of the species, and not being a botanist myself 

 was obliged to appeal to professional botanists for assistance. I am 

 indebted most of all to Miss Alice Eastwood, curator of the herba- 

 rium of the California Academy of Sciences, whose courtesy and 

 promi)tuess in identifying plants, sent her from time to time while I 

 was still in the field, were of the utmost assistance. I am also particu- 

 larly indebted to Prof. E. L. Greene, of the Catholic University at 

 Washington, who has taken the trouble to examine a large number of 

 species, and to describe several which proved to be new. Other bota- 



135 



