80 



TO WESTERN BOTANY NO, 15 



and a few birds. T^cy say deer ire common. I also saw a blue racer 

 about 10 feet long with highly colored coat Large animals are scarce, 



but there are many small lizards. 



NONTECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS OF TRIPS 



FLORA OF THE GULF REGION 



undertake 



asked 



certain parties approached Prof. Munz of Pomona 

 study of the flora of Lower California. Since his 

 :lass-room routine he could not do the work. I 



from 



Texas west to the sea. After looking the field over I saw that thi 

 gcncies of travel would require my going down from Nogales to Guaymas, 

 and thence do^-n to Santa Rosalia, Muleje, Loreto, and La Paz, and 

 thence to Cape St. Lucas. From there the Pacific coast regions, Mar- 

 garita and Magdalena, Cedros, San Benito, and Guadalupe islands could 

 be reached by boat In case it proved desirable to examine the east coast 

 of the Gulf this could be done either by rail from Gua>Tna? or Mazatlan. 

 r therefore decided to make a preliminary trip and look over the situation 

 to spe if I would get in touch with enough flora of the V order to make W 

 worth while to me to explore it , and if necessary to do the Bora of the 

 Gulf region on both sides. 



^ About the 20th of October I left Claremont an<l landed at Nogales. 

 wbere I found that on October 10th a terrific rainfall of about 10 inches 

 had swept the region from Magdalena to Guaymas and souih\\ard over 

 thf v;ist plain for hundreds of miles, inundating the whole re^^ion, tearing 

 out all railroad bridges, and piling up the tack ia hairpins on the 

 bu h s. The devastation must have been terrible. 



I could not get a train for three days, and then on Ia' a work-train 

 for Quenbabi, which -was the end of the repaired section. " From there I 

 was told I would have to depend on auto? to get across the gap of 44 

 mil:;s^ to Carbo, where another train would take us up for Tlenrosillo. and 

 tiiat It was doubtful if I could get through with mv ba-<?rge. So T spent 

 three strenuous days botanizing at Nogales. Then 'an engine haulmg two 

 passenger cars, several freight cars fitted with board seats, and other cars 

 Joadrd with timbers and rails, (pulled out, crawling along at ten to fifteen 

 miles an hour, and in an hour reached the summit, some 4.000 feet alti- 

 tude, m a rolling country, all grassed over, and looking orchard-like with 

 the many live oaks. Then we slipped down along a gent!e slope, and 

 through a box canon to the ancient city of Magdalena. Then soon left 

 the hills and out on the plain which was covered with brush about ten 

 fert high as far as the eye could reach. Here and there a ranch hot-e 

 relieved the monotony, but these were often squashed down in the U^t 

 ram. Most of the houses in the region are made of sundried brick, and 

 ^ f yjeason they are not protected by an overhanging roof, the rain 

 soaks the bncks up and they squash down like mush. After many miles 

 of trundlmg along the improvised roadbed we reached Queribabi, where 



