THE VEGETATION OF THE SAN BENITO ISLANDS. 
The Christian feeling of early Spanish voyagers dedicated 
to Saint Benedict a group of small islands which lie to the 
seaward some twenty geographical miles from the northern 
end of Cedros, the principal island of the Lower Californian 
coast. The group is some four miles in extent and consists 
of three islets, of which the westernmost is much the largest, 
being a mile and a quarter long by three quarters of a mile 
wide. It is nearly rectangular, rather low on all sides, but 
with a mound-like elevation in the middle, the summit of 
which has an altitude of six hundred and fifty feet above the 
tide. 
Up to the beginning of the present year, in so far as I am 
informed, only two species of plants were known from the 
San Benitos. These were Lavatera venosa and Hemizonia 
Streelsii; and both of them are still, for aught we know, 
endemicthere. For the knowledge of twenty-two other species 
now to be credited to this interesting little archipelago, we 
are indebted to the zeal of my friend Lieutenant Charles F. 
Pond, of the U.S. Ship Ranger, at present engaged upon a 
survey of the Lower Californian shores and islands; he hav- 
ing supplied me with specimens of all the plants herein 
named, together with much written information regarding 
the place, and an admirable photograph of one of the island 
slopes exhibiting a thicket of Lavatera venosa and other 
plants which can be identified from the picture. 
Lieutenant Pond judges the San Benitos to be of much 
older formation than the large island of Cedros near by. The 
surface is not sharply rocky; the slopes are not abrupt; 
there is a good depth of soil almost everywhere, and vegeta- 
tion is abundant, the whole group presenting, on the near 
261 Issued March 20, 1889. 
