■CEANOTHUS. 1 85 



CEANOTHUS, L. 



Recent Field Notes, with a Partial Revision of Species, 

 ft ^ 



BY C. C. PARRY. 

 [Read before the Academy, August 30, iSSq.) 



In undertaking to put into systematic form the results of some 

 special observations on the genus Ceanothus, included in Proceedings 

 of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, Vol. V., pp. 162-174, the 

 common experience of finding a lack of definite information on certain 

 important points was naturally encountered. With a view to meet 

 some of these in the only effectual way, the writer was induced to 

 undertake, the present season (1889), a brief re-exploration of certain 

 districts on the Pacific coast, affording the best promise of successful 

 results in elucidating t'he doubtful points needed to clear up certain 

 specific characters. It is always an advantage in such researches to 

 have some definite object in view, some special doubtful questions to 

 answer; and with these weighing on his mind, the writer felt at liberty 

 to pass over with a mere cursory view, such matters, however interest- 

 ing, that did not bear directly on the main object of investigation. 



To acquire a satisfactory knowledge of the earlier-described Pacific 

 coast species, often described from imperfect fragmentary material, it 

 is desirable, if possible, to visit the original localities and identify the 

 types with the living plants, thus not only settling the vexed question 

 of synonomy, but supplying what is wanting in a complete definition 

 of species. It has so happened in the nature of the case, that the 

 earliest botanical explorations were mainly confined to a few accessible 

 points on the Pacific coast, from which only a limited area of the vast 

 interior districts could be reached, amid hardships and privations diffi- 

 cult to realize under the facilities of modern travel. Hence, peculiar 

 interest attaches to such localities as the mouth of the Columbia River, 

 the harbors of Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, rendered clas- 

 sical by the enthusiastic labors of Chamisso, Douglas, Nuttall, and 

 others of less note. Treading reverently in the steps of these worthies 

 of a past generation, as others may do later in ours, the writer enjoyed 



[Proo. D. A. N. S., Vol. V.J 24 [August 30, 1889.J 



