22 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



These subareas are denoted as the Interior, Coastal and Insular. 

 It is interesting to note that the names applied by Merriam to 

 those life zones occupying all of Southern California except the 

 mountains are used by Mr. Parish but once and then only in a 

 charts Even here they are applied to what are termed regions, 

 the Lower Sonoran region corresponding to the Desert area, the 

 Upper Sonoran to the Cismontane area. According to Dr. 

 Merriam 's latest published views most of the Cismontane area 

 would fall within the Lower Sonoran zone. In our estimation it 

 is quite as important to distinguish between the Desert and Cis- 

 montane areas as between the Lower and Upper Sonoran zones, 

 although both of these distinctions are not without considerable 

 value. The splitting up of the Desert area into Juniper, Pinyon, 

 Yucca, Larrea and Atriplex "zones" and of the Cismontane 

 area into similar zones and subareas, as proposed by Mr. Parish, 

 will be very helpful to the field student. It will be noted that 

 this use of the term zone is not exactly the same as that assigned 

 to it by Merriam, while Engler has used it in a still different 

 sense ; and it will be further seen that none of these authors ap- 

 ply the term as did Sehimper in his "Piianzengeographie." If 

 the confusion arising from the use of this much abused term can 

 be avoided in no other way we should like to suggest that these 

 minor divisions pointed out by Mr. Parish be termed belts. .It 

 seems to us quite proper to speak, for example, of a Juniper 

 belt, a Pinon belt, or even of a Chaparral belt. However, the 

 adjectives used by Mr. Parish in designating the different zones, 

 or belts, are so self-explanatory that there is little danger of 

 confusion, no matter to what noun they may be attached. 



A very readable chapter is the one which treats of the adapta- 

 tion of plants to climatic conditions and no less interesting is 

 the author's discussion of the affinities of the flora. Many other 

 important phases of the subject are carefully worked out and 

 the paper closes with a brief sketch of the cryptogamic flora. 



This contribution by one so thoroughly conversant with the 

 distribution of plants in Southern California will serve as a basis 

 for all future work in this territory and the students of our 

 California fiora have reason to feel grateful to Mr. Parish, not 

 only for the great amount of field work he has accomplished, 

 but also for the clear and interesting style in which he has pre- 

 sented the results of his observations. 



H. M. HALL. 



