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 diflerent species. This is particularly conspicuous with Vaccini- 

 um, Rubus, Rosa, and Lupinus. The former has several deciduous 

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

 come neat evergreen shrubs, with a myrtle-like foliage. 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 Camtschaiicum, which differ so entirely from the 

 surrounding vegetation as to exert a very considerable influence on the 

 physiognomy." 



This description applies to the whole region bordering the coast. 

 Farther 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. Flinds did not obtain any entirely new species of plants along 

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

 is given. 



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

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

 an expedition up the Rio Sacramento penetrated from San Francisco 

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

 rich 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 

 oaks for deciduous species. The latter grow to fine trees^ with wood 

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

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

 largest, it was really a sorrowful sight to behold numbers of the finest 

 trees thus prematurely and wantonly destroyed. And it is not a coun- 

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

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

 which 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 

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

 trod in no footsteps, as none had preceded us." 



Mr. Hinds confirms our previous impression that the two Californias 

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

 tation ; and that San Diego, their political place of separation, stands 

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



