122 Muhlenbergia, Volume 3 
individuals. In the winter the population is much increased, a 
goodly number of visitors finding shelter in the rustic hotel and — 
its cottages. They are mostly sufferers from tuberculosis, a dis- 
ease for which the climate is particularly helpful. 
Time was when the valley had a much larger population, 
when a narrow-gague railway connected it with the main line of 
the Southern Pacific, and a stone-lined aqueduct conducted the 
floods of the distant Whitewater to its thirsty soil; when it was 
dotted with homes and embosemed in orchards and vineyards. 
But years of drought came, the indispensable water failed, and 
to-day trees and vines are dead, the aqueduct is filled with drifted 
sand, the houses are abandoned, and straight across the desert 
stretches the bare road bed of the railway, stripped of its iron 
and ties. It is a depressing scene of misdirected enterprise and 
disappointed hopes. 
The earliest scientific visitor to the valley was Professor 
William P. Blake, whe encamped at the springs on the 15th of 
November, 1853, while engaged on the Pacific Railway surveys. 
His report contains an interesting note on the vegetation of the 
place, but no botanical collections were made. In 1876 Parry 
and Lemmon made the first botanical exploration of this part of 
the Colorado desert, and gathered here, and at Whitewater, 
many rare and interesting species, not a few of which were made 
known to science,through their collections. Mr. W. G. Wright 
was a frequent visitor in 1877-78, and succeeding years. He 
also found here several undescribed plants, as well as a number 
of entomological novelties. My own first journey was in Janu- 
ary, 1880. In later years the place has been visited by most of 
the California botanists, and by some from the east, and numer- 
ous additions to its known flora have resulted from their collec- 
tions. 
In early reports Palm Springs appears under its Spanish 
name of Agua Caliente, and usually it was erroneously located 
in San Bernardino county. In reality it then belonged to San 
Diego county, but now is included within the boundaries of 
Riverside county. 
