132 BULLETIN r)(i, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



As soon as this station was reached some of the animals and plants 

 peculiar to the San Diego or Pacific Coast Tract appeared, although 

 many of the desert forms ascended for some distance the canyons and 

 eastern slopes of the Coast Range Mountains, a few of them actually 

 passing through the lowest gaps in the range to the Pacific side. 



Vegetation. — The traveler who has crossed the Colorado Desert 

 looks back upon its wastes of sand, dotted Avith the creosote bush, 

 with a feeling of abhorrence, and views the sweltering cliffs at the 

 base of the Coast Range with favor, however grim and uninviting 

 they may appear to one approaching them from the opposite direc- 

 tion. The green tops of the yucca, and even the despised cactus, are 

 a positive pleasure to the eye; and if one is fortunate enough to find 

 a spring and a grove of fanleaf palms {Xeotras/iiiigtonin fla/iteiifo.m) 

 in the first canyon that he enters his contentment is complete. There 

 are no palms in the canyon through which the San Diego wagon road 

 passes; but its course is marked far out upon the sloping desert by a 

 line of tree 3'uccas {Y iicea mo/iaren.sis Sargent), succeeded by desert 

 Avillows, mesquites, and cat's claws, at the mouth of the canyon, 

 which is choked with IJymenorJea, arrowwood, and BaerJun'ls. 

 Growing upon the rocky walls of the canyon are the Zhi/p/n/.s and 

 Ephedra, besides Xollna parryl Watson, Ae/are (/eserfi Engehnann, 

 SJ'mniotidsia californiea Nuttall, and the familiar choya, bisnaga, 

 and ocotillo. Here, also, Ave took a final leave of the indigo thorn, 

 Avhose fragrant, violet-colored flowers covered the white sand. 



Reptiles. — In the general region of the boundary, on the Colorado 

 Desert, between the Colorado River and the Coast Range (Monu- 

 ments Nos. 206 to 229), the following-named reptiles have been taken: 



Lizards. 



Dips()f<iiiinix f/o/-.sfl/(.s- (Baird and 



Girard). 

 Crotaph ytus coUaris ( Say ) . 

 Crotuphj/tus irislizcnii Baird and Gi- 



rard. 

 Hauromalus uicr Dunieril. 

 CaUisaunis draconoidcs ventral if< (llal- 



lowell ) . 



Snakes 



T'lna nifopiDictata Cope. 



rta mcanisi StejneKtH'. 



Itn st (tush II rid II a Baird and (iirard. 



Vta syimiictrica Baird. 



Sceloporus clarkii Baird and (iirard. 



Anota platyrhina (Girard). 



Eublephar'iH rariegatiis (Baii'd). 



Lichunurd ro.scofiiscii Cope. 

 Lichanura orciitti Stejneger. 

 Zamensis flagcUmii floficlhiiii (Shaw). 

 Pityophis catcnifrr (Blainville). 

 Chionaeti.'i occipitiij'is (inmiliitiix Kon- 

 nieott. 



Eiiiirnid ch'i/diis iiidrcidiui (B.-iird and 



Girard). 

 Crotalus adanidiiteiis atro.r (Baird and 



Girard). 

 Crotdliis rr;Y/.s/('.s' ITiillowrll. 



Station Xo. S."). — Mountain Spring, San Diego County, California. 

 This station is about halfway up the east sloi)e of the Coast Range 



