496 A Botanist in Southern California. [July, 
majesty. Imagine a stalk ten or fifteen feet in height, two inches ` 
in diameter at the base, branched like a candelabra and covered for 
six or eight feet of its height with a mass of cream-colored, bell- 
shaped, drooping flowers. At the base the long, sharp, serrated 
leaves stuck out on all sides, as if to guard against the approach of 
any injurious animal. When seen standing along the mountain side, 
its white mass of blossoms outlined against the dark background 
of the naked rock, it looks like a sentinel keeping guard over the 
valley ; and numbers of them ranged one after another, and one 
above another, looked like a troop of soldiers placed there to 
stand guard. They grow in such steep and inaccessible places 
oftentimes that it is impossible to get at them. As it gets old 
the leaves become frayed at the edges, and the fibers hang like 
long filaments down each side of the leaf. 
Ranunculus californicus Benth., is very common in wet and - 
damp places, and R. cymbalaria Pursh., grows in great profusion 
in the sand on the bank of the Los Angeles river. Viola pedun- 
culata Torr. and Gray, with its pretty yellow and black flowers, is 
conspicuous amid the flowers of the plains, and Nasturtium 
officinale R. Br., almost blocks up the water of slow-flowing and 
shallow streams. It grows in shady places, sometimes three 
feet high, and in such dense masses as to make it difficult to 
force one’s way through it. Vitis californica Benth., the only 
representative of the Vitacez in California in a wild state, is com- 
mon, and climbs high over the willow hedges and bushes in 
damp localities. The deadly Rhus diversiloba Torr. and Gray, 
own cousin to Rhus toxicodendron L. of the East, is too common 
all over the plains, hills and cañons of Southern California, and 
while some persons can handle it with impunity, others barely 
touching it are afflicted with a severe cutaneous eruption. Tellina 
cymbalaria Gray, is a very pretty little plant with radical leaves . 
and a cluster of white flowers on the end of a long scape. It 
grows in damp shady places, and is very common. 
There are several genera which are very common all ovr 
California, and many of the species resemble each other so closely 
as to be nearly undistinguishable. Among the Leguminose, for 
instance, the genera Lupinus, Hosackia and Astragalus are all 
large. The species of the last are very numerous, and so closely 
connected as to cause great trouble in separating them. Nearly 
all the species have white or yellow flowers, pinnate leaves and. . 
