4 West American Scientist. 



observes; and yet, the eggs of the CaHfornia quail, which bird was 

 also introduced, have in some measure escaped, for this species is 

 fairly increasing. 



From the summit of this southward range the mainland view is 

 shut out by the higher altitude of the northern range; but looking 

 out to the sea, on a clear day, one may perceive the low island of 

 San Nicolas more or less distinctly, although it is more than 

 thirty miles distant, and also San Clemente which is nearer and 

 well elevated; and besides these a greater or less number of rocky 

 islets and low reefs that are scattered up and down along the 

 shores of Santa Cruz itself: most of them occupied by seals and 

 sea fowl, their tide -washed foundations covered with shell fish, 

 the abundance of which must have been, in former times, the 

 principal means of subsistence to the aborigines of the island. 

 The extensive and deep kitchenmiddings, which occur wherever 

 there are springs, constitute one of the marked features of the 

 Santa Cruz landscape. The store of ethnological materials which 

 these ought to have furnished to our scientific collections, has 

 long since been gathered in and transported to the museums of 

 the old world, in reproof of our own slowness and indifference. 

 But there still remains, in the flora and fauna, especially the rich 

 marine portion, a most inviting field for future work. 



A NEW GENUS OF GRASSES. 



Orcuttia. — Tribe, Festucece, Subtribe, SesleriecE. Panicle 

 simple; spikelets sessile, alternate, many flowered, compressed, 

 upper ones crowded; empty and flowering glumes much alike, 

 green and thickish, broad, 3 to 5 lobed, unawned, strongly many 

 nerved; palet equaling its glume, hyaline, narrow, green on the 

 strongly angled keels; anthers 3, styles 2, filaments and styles at 

 length projecting beyond the flower. 



O. Californica. — Plant dwarf, 2 to 4 inches high, annually, 

 growing in small clusters of 10 to 20 or more culms from one 

 root, culms variable in lemrth in the same cluster, generally pro- 

 ducing some small flowering branches from the lower joints: 

 leaves 2 or 3, the sheaths open and inflated, striate, ligule 

 obsolete, blade rather rigid, about one inch long, acuminate; 

 leaves and sheaths sparsely pubescent; panicle about one inch 

 long, simple, usually of 4 to 6 alternate sessile spikelets, the 

 lower 2 or 3 rather distant, the upper ones crowded ; spikelets 5 

 to 10 flowered, empty glumes sparsely pubescent, broad, about 2 

 lines long, scariously margined, mostly 3 lobed, the 2 outer lobes 

 longer, the lobes each 3 nerved ; flowering glumes a little exceed- 

 ing 2 lines, with 5 nearly equal, acute lobes, each lobe three 

 nerved; palet as long as its glume, hyaline, narrow, strongly 

 keeled, dentate at apex. 



