88 



8ILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



KUTACE^. 



CANOTIA HOLACANTHA. 



Canotia holacantha, Torrey, JPacific R. E. Rep. iv. 68. — 24, 81, t. i. — Uusby, Bull Torrey Bot. Club, is 106 — 



Gray, Ives" Bep. 15 ; Froc. Am. Acad. xii. 160. — Brewer Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. IQth Census V. S jx 32 



& "Watson, Bot Ca^. i. 190. — Rothrock, Wheeler's Bej}. Koeberlinia (?), Engelraann, ^mo?ys ^eo. 158 f 14 



Canotia holacantha is a small slirub-like tree, sometimes twenty to tliirty feet liio-h witli a short 

 stout trunk rarely a foot in diameter, or often a lo-\v spreading slirub. It grows on the dry gravelly 

 mesas of the Arizona foothills, from the Wliite-mountain region to the valley of Bill Williams Fork in 

 the northwestern part of the territory, and on Providence Mountain in southern California/ 



Canotia holacantha was discovered in January, 1851, on the hills above White Cliff Creek, a small 

 tributary of Bill WilHams Fork, by Dr. J. M. Bigelow,^ botanist of the expedition under Lieutenant A. 

 W. Whipple, United States army, to explore a route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the 

 Pacific Ocean near the thirty-fifth parallel. 



^ Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal, I c. 



2 John Milton Bigelow (lSOl-1878) was born in Middlebury, 

 Vermont. His family moved to Oliio in 1815, and in 1832 the son 

 graduated from the Medical College of Ohio. He established 

 himself in the practice of Ins profession in Lancaster, Ohio, and 

 received in 1850 the appointment of surgeon of the Mexican 

 Boundary Commission, and three years later, on the completion of 

 the boundary survey, that of surgeon and botanist of the govern- 

 ment expedition organized to explore, under command of Lieuten- 

 ant Whipple, a route along the thirty-fifth parallel for a railroad 

 from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. In 1860 Dr. 

 Bigelow made his home in Detroit, where later he was appointed 



surgeon of the Marine Hospital, and Professor of Medical Botany 

 and Materia Medica in the Medical College. The list of Dr. Big- 

 clow's botanical contributions includes a paper on the medical 

 plants of Ohio, publislied in 1849 ; important papers on the bo- 

 tanical character of the country traversed by Lieutenant Whip- 

 ple's expedition, and a description of Its forest trees and of some 

 of the valuable and remarkable trees of California, published in 

 the fourth volume of the Pacijic Railroad Reports; a number of 

 papers on the medicinal properties of plants, written during the last 

 years of his life, and published iu tlie Detroit Journal of Medicine 

 and Pharmacy. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Plate XXXVII. Cakotia holacantha. 



1. A flowering branch, natural size. 



2. Diagram of a flower. 



3. A flower, enlarged. 



4. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 



5. Anterior and posterior views of a stamen, enlarged, 



6. A fruiting branch, natural size. 



7. Vertical section of a fruit, natural size. 



8. A seed, enlarged. 



9. Vertical section of a seed, enlarged. 

 10. An embryo, much enlarged. 



