150 
California, may amount to five hundred 
species, a little more or less. This is vex- 
atiously small, I am aware; but when I 
inform you that the season for botanizing: 
does not last longer than three months, 
your surprize will cease. Such is the ra- 
pidity with which spring advances, as on 
` the table-lands of Mexico and the platforms 
of the Andes in Chili, the plants bloom 
here only for a day. The intense heats set 
in about June, when every bit of herbage 
is dried to a cinder. The facilities for tra- 
. velling are not great, whereby much time 
is lost: this, as a matter of course, is the 
case in all new countries. It would re- 
quire at least three years to do any thing 
like justice to the Botany of California, 
and the expense is not the least of the 
drawbacks. At present, it is out of my 
power to effect any thing further, and must 
content myself with particularizing the 
collection now made. Of new genera I 
am certain there are nineteen or twenty, at 
least, and I hope you will find many more. 
Most of them are highly curious. As to 
species, about three hundred and forty may 
be new. I have added a most interesting 
species to the genus Pinus, P. Sabinii, 
one which I had first discovered! in 1826, 
and lost, together with the rough notes, in 
crossing a rapid stream on my return north- 
ward. When compared with many indi- 
viduals of the genus inhabiting the western 
parts of this continent, its size is inconsi- 
derable, from 110 to 140 feet high, and 
3 to 12 feet in diameter, In the aqueous 
. deposits on the western flanks of the Cor- 
dilleras of New Albion, at a very great 
elevation above the sea (1,600 feet below 
the line of perpetual snow), this Pine grows 
somewhat larger than in the more tempe- 
, Tate parts near the coast in a more south- 
ern parallel. I sent to London a detailed 
account of this most beautiful tree, to be 
published in the Transactions of the Horti- 
cultural Society, which you will see before 
this can reach you, so that I will not trou- 
ble you with a further description of it. 
But the great beauty of Californian vege- 
tation is a species of Taxodium, which 
* See page 106 (in note), 
MR. DOUGLAS’ SECOND VISIT TO THE COLUMBIA. 
gives the mountains a most peculiar, 
almost going to say awful, appe: 
from recollection I should say, he 
present species is distinct from it, Tha 
which the thickness was greater than 
T have instanced. I possess fine sp 
and seeds also. I have doubled the g 
Calochortus ; C. luteus (Bot. Reg. t. 190 
is especially deserving of attention, as 
finest of all. To Mimulus I have 
added several, among them the mag 
M. cardinalis (Hort. Soc. Trans. N. 
p. 70. t. 3), an annual, three or 
high, handsomer than M. luteus zci 
elegans, (Bot. Reg. t. 1575) is a 
species, but hardly equal to C. pu 
it grows to four or six feet, and has 
petals. It is to Gilia, Collomia, 
and Heuchera, that the greatest ac 
have been made: indeed they are 
merous to mention. 
done among the Onagrarve. 3 
the new genus (Zauschneria of Lh. 
luded to by De Candolle in-his 
(vol. II; p. 85), as exhibiting the 
Fuchsia and the fruit of an 4 
I possess another new genus, and 
tude of GZnotheras, Also four un 
kinds of Pentstemon, two of whi 
ceed -any of the known species, * 
shrubs ; and among the Papavera 
if not three, new genera? One 15 
cent, with a bifoliate calyx and fo 
it has the stamens of Papaver and f 
of Eschsholtzia, with entire leaves: 
2 A splendid groupe, consisting eco 
that have since flowered in the Hortical ‘ 
Garden, is given in the Hort. Trans. N- : 
and the dried specimens have afforded va't 
rials for a revision of the whole Order by 
tham, in Bot. Reg. under t. 1622. 
3 See Platystemon, Platystigma, ond 
of Mr, Bentham in Hort. Trans. N. $. Y-' 
