113 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF 



ACHYRODES AUREUM, 



By J. BuBTT Davy* 



In the Botany of the CaliforDian State Survey, vol. ii., p. 

 299, Dr. Thurber states that the first collection of Achyrodes 

 aureum in America, was made by Messrs. Parry & Lemmon, 

 who — he adds — discovered it in the Colorado Desert in 1876. 

 Through an attempt to find out more precisely where this 

 discovery was made, I obtained the following additional in- 

 formation about it. Mr. Lemmon writes to me as follows: 

 "I first discovered the bronze-hued Lamarclda near the 

 mouth of Mill Creek, fifteen miles east of San Bernardino, 

 April 3, 1876. The plants stood out solitary, were only about 

 four inches high and the little unilateral spikes with the 

 numerous large golden sterile spikelets waving in the wind, 

 were so beautiful that I gathered all in sight. Dr. Parry and 

 I were on a tramp towards the mountains from Crafton, 

 twelve miles east of San Bernardino. We had one horse 

 only, and were riding by turns. I happened to be riding 

 when we were entering the mouth of Mill Creek Canon and 

 was a few rods behind Dr. Parry at the time I saw the plant- 

 Dismounting and pulling some specimens I passed on, over- 

 taking Dr. Parry, and showing him the grass asked if he had 

 seen it too. 'No,' he replied jocularly, 'you seem to see 

 plants better the further you are away.' * * * "We made 

 several valuable collections in the Colorado Desert and one 

 set of the labels indicated that locality. I presume Lamarc- 

 Ma was wrongly reported on one of the latter labels." 



Dr. Parry wrote, Thurber remarks, that the grass was found 

 where one would not expect to meet an alien, yet he thought 

 it might have been accidentally introduced. 



During the seventeen years elapsed since Mr. Lemmon 

 first found it, this South-European grass has been met with 

 in the following additional localities in California: 



Hills 



(Lemmon in litt.). 



