392 GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 



work, which Bent-ham is working out, and the traveller 

 elucidating by botanico-geographical remarks (The Botany 

 of the Voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur. Edited and superin- 

 tended by R. Brinsley Hinds. The botanical descriptions 

 by G. Bentham. London, 1844, 4to). Five parts are now 

 published. The representation of the character of the 

 vegetation of California given in this work has a decided 

 preference over the earlier ones, upon which we have pre- 

 viously reported. The flora of California resolves itself 

 into two districts, a northern one, extending from the 

 Columbia river to S. Diego (33 N. lat.), and a southern 

 one, from here to the vicinity of the tropic, where the 

 tropical forms of plants commence : the former corresponds 

 to about the limits of Upper, and the latter to those of 

 Lower California. South of Columbia (46), where the 

 forests of Abies terminate, the deciduous forests gradually 

 continue to disappear: above S. Francisco (38), there 

 are no large forests, and altogether but few trees. In 

 sailing, in Upper California, up the S. Francisco from the 

 coast, a broad alluvial plain presents itself; it is open, 

 and here and there sparingly wooded with oak trees like 

 a natural park : the river flows through it, and floods it 

 in the moist season. Bentham determined the trees to 

 be, Quercus agrifolia and Hindsii and Oreodapkne cali- 

 fornica ; Frawinus latifolia and ^Esculus calif ornica are 

 also found there, and Salices, with Plat anus calif ornica, 

 grow upon the banks of the river. At S. Pedro, the 

 flora of Lower California prevails, and extends as far as 

 the Magdalene Bay (24 38'), where the most northern 

 mangrove forests are found. Between these two points, 

 the soil at different landing-places was either covered with 

 low shrubs, which frequently fill the air with agreeable 

 odours, or (in October and November) bare, like the 

 steppes, and ornamented between the isolated portions of 

 underwood with herbaceous plants with very beautiful 

 flowers. Here the Synantheracea3 predominate, in the most 

 varied forms and colours ; in fact, they constitute more 

 than the fourth part of Hinds's collection. Next to these, 



