Volume 8 



January 31, 1913 



MUHLENBERGIA 



/^ COREOPSIS GIGANTEA (Kellogg) Hall 



By S. R. Parish 



The islands which lie off the coast of southern and Lower Cali 

 fornia possess a flora full of interest to the student of the ori<j[in 

 and distribution of plant populations, so many are the plants, 

 anomalous in their characters and limited in their dispersion, 

 which are included in it. So unrelated are some of them to the 

 general vegetation of the mainland, that the\' seem the relics of 

 a remote past, here and there preserved in the midst of compar- 

 atively recent successors. That thex- are less adapted to present 

 conditions than are the newcomers is evident from the fact that 

 most of them are failing in the struggle for existence, and grad- 

 ually perishing before our e\es. Some are confined to the 

 islands, and even to a particular one of them, while others have 

 a limited foothold on the adjacent continental shores, but in no 

 case beyond the immediate influence of the sea. 



Among these last is the curious composite here illustrated. It 

 occurs on at least six of the island-^, from Santa Cruz to Guada- 

 lupe, and is also found at some scattered station*; along the coast 

 from San Luis Obispo to Point Dnsne in Los Angeles countw 

 While it is thus one of the most widely distribntt-d members of 

 the peculiar insular flora, it is nowhere abundant. Probably it 

 owes this raritv, in .some degree, to the fondness of animals for 

 its foliage. According to Lvon (Hot. Oaz. 1 1: 205) even men 

 relish its leaves as "greens." 



It was first de.scribed b\- Kellogg, in 1873. in ilic Proceed- 

 ings of the California .Acadeinx- (4: 19^) as Leptosyne giganteu, 

 but the genus to which he referred it having recentU' been 

 united with Coreopsis^ Hall accepted the reduction, and, in his 



