612 Part IV. Chapter 4. 
Grassy Plain Formation. During the months of March, April and May the 
San Joaquin Valley was one smooth continuous bed of grasses, sedges 
and flowering plants for a distance of more than 400 miles. Each species 
usually dominated its own particular area, almost to the exclusion of others. 
Acre after acre, mile after mile were thus covered with masses of plants with 
flowers of bright blue, orange, white, yellow, pink or cream and the effect of 
the whole, especially during the month of April has been likened by one 
popular writer “to a huge patch-work quilt thrown on the ground”. Flowering 
plants of the following genera were conspicuous: Brodiaea, Gilia, Claytonia, 
Calandrinia, Nemophila, Castilleja, Lupinus, Trifolium, besides numerous labiate 
and compositous genera ') : 
The only breaks in the continuity of these wild bee pastures were along the main streams 
and their tributaries, which entered at right angles from the mountains on either side and were 
fringed with trees. On the open flat country grew ee californicus, Eschscholtzia cali- 
fornica and nn of Bahia, Calandrinia, FRE: MUndEr a, Baeria, Burrielia, Chrysopsis, 
Corethro kia, Grindelia, Allocarya, growing i alas association of various shades of 
yellow, ie Saat with the Enenien of species of Clarkia, Orthocarpus and Oenothera. On 
account of the long period of drought, annuals which ung up quickly were and are still 
the rule in undisturbed places and the general appearance of uniformity was scarcely modified 
by the taller er of Kae Pentstemon and associations of Salvia carduacea. 
wth o nths mentioned was stimulated by the winter rains which fall 
Kur. abe ja February and early March. Following. the spring months subsequent 
o May, the general brown and purple colors of the vegetation were the most marked characte- 
a of the plain. In October when the dry vegetation had crumbled to dust there was a 
second outburst of bloom, and Hemizonia virgata made its appearance in associations, miles in 
extent, a single plant bearing as many as 3,000 flowers, five eighths of an inch in diameter. 
This plant en in November is associated with two or three species of Eriogonum 
and by tufts of Grindelia which continue until the spring flowers of January appear?). 
The Abe of the Tulare plains, except the alkaline bottoms, contained no shrubs, but a 
scant herbaceous growth of Eremocarpus, and herbs made up principally of annuals such as 
Croton californicus, C. setigerus and Asclepias erosa. 
Riwer Bank Formation, The river banks of the great valley are formed 
of silt and they separate the river channel from the marshes behind. The 
following trees and shrubs are characteristic river bank species: 
Salix nigra Marsh. Platanus racemosa Nutt. 
sessilifolia Nutt. var. Hindsiana _ Juglans californica Wats. 
Anders. Alnus rhombifolia Nutt. 
» lasiandra Benth. Cephalanthus occidentalis L. 
>»  longifolia Muhl (=S. interior | Vitis californica Benth. 
Populus Fremonti Wats. [Rowlee). | Rosa californica C. & S. 
1) This account is written in the past tense, because the composition of the valley flora has 
been changed by the settlement of the country. 'The description is true, however for undisturbed 
sections of this Valley. 
2) Mvır, Jomn: The Mountains of California, 1901: 339—359; Jerson, Wırrıs L.: The 
riparian Botany of the lower Sacramento. Erythea I (1893): 238. — A Flora of California. Ilu- 
strated. 1909—1910, : 
