Bibliography. 203 



is not great, and some will occur with multitudes of individuals cover- 

 ing a very large space. It is curious to observe how tenaciously some 

 genera extend throughout this territory, though continually represented 

 by a different species. This is particularly conspicuous with Vaccina 

 urn, Rubus, Rosa, and Lupiniis. The former has several deciduous 

 species towards the northern portion, but towards the south they be- 



rgreen 



To a Euro- 



pean, the general features of the country are entirely such as he is 

 familiar with, only modified by the character of the climate and coun- 

 try ; with the exception that there are two common plants, Panax horri- 

 dum and Dracontium Camtschaticum, which differ so entirely from the 



mg vegetation as to exert a very considerable influence on the 

 physiognomy." 



I his description applies to the whole region bordering the coast, 

 rartner back an arid, desert region succeeds, doomed to perpetual 

 sterility, of which a good account will be found in the journal of the 

 late Mr. Douglas. 



As Mr. Hinds did not obtain any entirely new species of plants along 



the northwest coast, no enumeration or further account of the collection 

 ^ given. 



Late in the autumn of 1837, the Sulphur touched at some parts of 

 Upper California, at a season very unfavorable for herborization ; and 

 an ex pedition up the Rio Sacramento penetrated from San Francisco 

 some distance into the interior. " The country exhibited a vast plain, 

 ric h in a deep soil, and subject to periodical submersion. Occasional 

 clumps of fine oaks and planes imparted an appearance of park-land. 

 On quitting the coast for the interior, we exchanged the evergreen 

 oalts for deciduous species. The latter grow to fine trees, with wood 

 of great specific gravity. But the natives have a very pernicious prac- 

 toe of lighting their fires at the bases ; and as they naturally select the 

 J ar gest, it was really a sorrowful sight to behold numbers of the finest 

 ' tr ees thus prematurely and wantonly destroyed. And it is not a coun- 

 ty where wood is superabundant ; for no sooner is the Oregon cross- 

 ed than the spruce forests disappear, and the prevailing trees are oaks, 

 w hich towards the south become gradually less abundant. But Upper 

 California had already been tolerably examined, and it was our good 

 fortune to touch rapidly at several places on the coast of the Lower, or 



trod 



**r. Hinds confirms our previous impression that the two Californias 

 are essentially different in many respects, and especially in their vege- 

 ^ lxo ^ 5 and that San Diego, their political place of separation, stands 

 00 the southern boundary of the proper extra- tropical flora. Thus, 



• • . . 



^California, during October and November, 1839; and here we 

 m no footsteps, as none had preceded us." 



