492 A Botanist in Southern California. [July, 
A BOTANIST IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
BY JOSEPH F. JAMES. 
E who would see California at her best, should come here in 
the spring. If the traveler arrives about the middle of 
March, he will find the spring in all its beauty and freshness. 
After his passage over the snowy Sierra, he will be delighted at 
the change from ice and snow to green grass and flowers; from 
cold and cutting northern winds to gentle balmy southern breezes. 
The sky will appear of a brighter blue, and the grass of a greener 
tinge than he ever saw before, and he will feel a vigor and a fresh- 
ness which he has not felt in many a long day. There seems to 
be a something in the air of California which makes it different 
from what it is elsewhere. It may be that it is possessed of more 
ozone than common, and the presence of that material freshens 
up one’s thoughts and feelings. The rains of the winter season 
will then be over, and the grass and flowers will be seen in all 
their verdure and freshness. On the other hand, should he arrive 
in the summer, he will find everything dried and parched; and as 
first impressions are always the most lasting, it is likely that he 
will have a much poorer opinion of the country than if he had 
seen it first in all its beauty. 
To a botanist, California is almost a paradise, and although he 
will not find in it much of that magnificent vegetation, and those 
grand and interminable forests which are characteristic of the 
tropics, we venture to say that he will find here as many, or nearly 
as many, curious and interesting forms of vegetable life as he can 
find in any other country of the world. The distribution of rain 
during the year has been the cause, at least in Southern Califor- 
nia, of a peculiarity in the development of vegetable life. Rain 
falls only from November to March, and the remainder of the 
year is dry and hot. By the middle of June or July many of the 
plants and flowers have disappeared ; the grass is dry and parched, 
and the whole country assumes an appearance which is extremely 
depressing. Most all the flowering plants appear, therefore, in 
the spring, and it is almost next to useless to hunt for them, 
except along the banks of streams and in deep shaded cafions, 
after the first of June. 
But the spring! Ah! that is the time. It would be almost 
impossible to find a more beautiful sight than is then visible in 
