No. 2. The Lyonothamnus Asplenifolius. 5 7 



found Mr. Hazard's discovery to be a new species <>! 

 Lyonothamnus, and later, in the Bulletin of the Califor- 

 nia Academy of Sciences, described it under the name 

 of Lyonothamnus Asplenifolius. 



In 1888 Mr. Brandegee found the same species on 

 the island of Santa Rosa, but he states that "the trees 

 were small and often distorted by the wind." 



Prof. Green found it growing in a hundred fine 

 groves distributed up and down the thirty miles of the 

 northern slopes of Santa Cruz. He speaks of speci- 

 mens often as high as thirty-five or forty feet, and 

 says: "No other small tree of our coast equals this in 

 grace of form, and beauty of foliage. The flowers too, 

 are quite showy in their season, the larger corymbs of- 

 ten measuring a foot in diameter," adding that "the 

 wood, close grained and hard, was called iron-wood by 

 the men of the island." 



As early in 1875, the writer was informed of the ex- 

 istence of this "iron-wood" and vainly endeavored to 

 procure specimens at the hands of sailors and others 

 frequenting the island. 



It was not until this season, 1889, that opportunity 

 offered a personal inspection of the growing trees. In 

 a recent visit to Lady Harbor, Dr. Yates and myself 

 climed the precipitous slopes near, and upon the rocky 

 ridges we found large groups of Lyonothamus, obtain- 

 ing specimens of the wood, bark, leaves and corymbs 

 of seed capsules, which were shown at a late meeting 

 of the society. The trees were in clumps of from five 

 to fifteen individuals, and of different diameters, rang- 

 ing from a half-inch to six or eight inches. The outer 

 bark is deciduous, parting in tough strings from the 

 trunks of the larger specimens, leaving the inner por- 

 tion rich in reddish brown color. The beautiful fern 

 like foliage seems to be deciduous, yet the tree may 

 not be entirely bereft of leaves at any time. The flow 

 ering season had past, deprived us of judging of their 

 beauty. The trunks are quite straight, the branches 

 springing from them somewhat in whorls at regular in- 

 tervals. We noticed no seedling specimens, yet it is 



