no 



Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, but it is not certain that it 

 grew there. Chaney and Mason have described a Pleistocene 

 flora of nine species, found on Santa Cruz. All the species are 

 living, but only one (Pinus remorata) still exists on any of the 

 islands. The flora is said to most resemble that about Fort 

 Bragg, 440 miles N.N.W. It includes large trunks of Pseudo- 

 tsuga taxifolia, wood and cones of Cupressus Goveniana, seeds of 

 Garrya elliptica etc. Remains of mammoths {Elephas), found on 

 Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel are perhaps con- 

 temporaneous with this flora. At all events, with the sole ex- 

 ception of the pine, it disappeared, to be replaced by a quite 

 different and more xerophilous flora. When or how the latter 

 arrived remains a matter for conjecture. The geologists postu- 

 late a large area of land, called Catalinia, existing during part 

 of the Tertiary time, and it may be that such distinct endemics 

 as the Crossosoma and Lyonothamnus have continuously occu- 

 pied this land, or what there was of it above water, since Mid- 

 Tertiary time or earlier. Most of the endemics, however, are 

 quite closely related to species of the mainland, and may be 

 presumed to have evolved during or since the Pleistocene. Some 

 of them seem very well adapted to their surroundings, and 

 flourish exceedingly. I visited San Miguel with a group of 

 Senior Boy Scouts, and noticed, as Greene had fifty-one years 

 before, how the grey-green bladder pod. Astragalus miguelensis 

 Greene, overran the island. It has an advantage (which of 

 course did not exist when it first evolved) in not being eaten 

 to any extent by the sheep. Mr. Robert Brooks tells me that 

 it is poisonous to them, a sort of loco-weed. He also states that 

 the excessively abundant ice-plant, M esembryanthemum crystal- 

 linum, acts as a purgative on the sheep, and is avoided, though 

 at a pinch it can serve as a source of enough water to maintain 

 life. This M esembryanthemum is also African, and is generally 

 supposed to have been introduced from Africa, but Greene 

 argues strongly that it is indigenous. There are strand plants, 

 such as Convolvulus soldanella (which Hoffmann collected on 

 Santa Cruzj which are widely distributed over the world, prob- 

 ably through the agency of birds. 



There are certain species, a.s Erysimum insulare Greene (with 

 yellow flowers and spreading pods), and Opuntia littoralis 

 Engelm. (with yellow spines) which are extremely character- 

 istic of the islands but have been removed from the list of 



