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December 7, 1907 123 
Having revisited Palm Springs in April of the present year 
(1907), and in the company of my friend Mr. Wright, it has oc- 
curred to me that a few notes on some of the plants seen there 
might not be without interest. 
The first thing to attract the attention of the botanist, as he 
wanders amidst the distinctively desert vegetation, is the occa- 
sional sight of a plant from the cismontane flora, beyond the San 
Gorgonio pass. There are a few plants, of which Salvza Colum- 
bariae and Stylocline gnaphalioides are the most abundant, that 
seem equally at home on either side of the mountains, so that it 
is only by a consideration of their entire range that their true 
position can be determined. But those to which I refer are evi- 
dent strays, of which only a few, or even but a single specimen 
may be found. Such plants as Phacelia Whitlavia, Lupinus 
densiflorus, Hosackia maritima or Mimulus exilis, seem stran- 
gely out of place in the society of their desert kindred. Even 
the costal flora of San Diego finds representation in an occasional 
plant of Jepsonia Parryz, or of Adiantum emarginatum. 
The mesa supports an abundant growth of Sphaerostigma 
pallida, a species recently segregated by Mr. Abrams from 5S, 
bistorta. Here also is found the beautiful and fragrant Adronza 
aurita, separated by the same author from A. vzlosa. Both of 
these segregates represent cismontane species, modified by a dif- 
ference of environment. With them, and as plentiful, grows 
Coldenia Palmert.a typical desert plant. In a former paper 
(Erythea 6: 91) I stated that this species grows from a running 
root, but the careful excavation of numerous individuals proves 
this to be an error. It is really from a deep-seated perpendicu- 
lar root, from which spread out numerous slender wiry stems, 
having the appearance of roots, and it is these which are seen 
in herbarium specimens. C. drevicalyx has a stouter perpen- 
dicular root, which branches at the surface. We failed to redis- 
cover the latter species, although a careful examination was 
made of the wash of Chino creek, where Mr. Wright found the 
specimen which became the type, in part, of the species. But 
