354 BOTANY. 



Tule River, and also on the eastern slope of valleys tributary to the North 

 Fork of Kern River. This seems to lead to the conclusion that its distri- 

 bution, as indicated by Mr. Muir, is due to causes long ago operative ; and 

 that, further, its tendency "to spread" is not great. 



On the southern slope of a peak to the south of Mount Whitney, we 

 found the present growth of trees at timber-line all dead or dying, and no 

 younger ones taking their places, so that, in a few years, the timber-line 

 will be several hundred feet lower than at present. I am quite unable to 

 give any satisfactory explanation of the fact, unless it be due to a washing 

 away of the soil by the melting snows : still, it is worth recording. 



As a general statement, it may be said that in the Southern Sierras, as 

 well as in portions of the Coast Range, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, we 

 find open grounds, at times dry, but frequently moist enough to come 

 under the general denomination of meadows, and that these extend through 

 the valleys up to an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet, as at the base of Mount 

 Whitney. Ordinarily, they would have been "well grassed", and fur- 

 nished an abundant botanical harvest, but the immense bands of sheep had 

 denuded them of every living, green thing, save sage-brush, and had 

 actually trampled the soil into a dust, even destroying the roots of the grass 

 in great measure. This is to be remembered in connection with the possible 

 disappearance of some local species of plants, the modification of the flora 

 as regards the proportions of existing plants, and even by repeated "crop- 

 ping" changing the entire habit of others The influence of the sheep 

 and their herders in destroying the young timber has been adverted to in 

 the general considerations in the early part of the volume. 



RANUNCULACE^. 



Clematis ligusticifolia, Nutt., var. Californica, Watson. — Head of 

 Peru Creek, at 5,100 feet altitude (229). Brewer and Watson in Flora of 

 California, 1, p. 3. 



Thalicteum Fendleei, Engelm. — Santa Barbara (111), I. c. p. 4. 



Ranunculus aquatilis, L., var. trichophylltts, Chaix. — Walker's 

 Basin, at 3,440 feet altitude (291 and 304), I. c. p. 5. 



Ranunculus Cymbalaria, Pursh, I. c. p. 7. 



