80 



The Plant World. 



detritus to afford an abiding place for a few plants that seem 

 particularly adapted to such an environment, exposed as it is 

 to all the vicissitudes of a near-marine life. 



Here, to be more specific, one may observe a fairly luxuriant 

 growth of such plants as Dudleya and Mesembryanihemum, with 

 their remarkably succulent leaves so well adapted to life under 

 such extreme conditions of moisture supply. Associated with 

 Dudleya one commonly finds growing in equal luxuriance the 

 sea. daisy, Erigeron glaucus, and Eriogonum lati folium, a member 

 of the buckwheat family, and a plant peculiarly fitted to such a 

 habitat owing to its markedly xerophytic leaf characters. 



On these same uninviting rocks and associated with the 

 above-named forms are to be found Astragalus Menziesii, 

 scattered specimens of Lupinus arboreus, and that unwelcome 

 plebeian, Rhus diver siloba, which in such an environment appears 

 as a low, rather compact shrub with its leaves noticeably thicker 

 than those belonging to plants of the same species confined to 

 the protecting shelter of the pine forest. Other plants that have 

 adapted themselves to the conditions peculiar to the shore zone 

 are two species of Tissa, T. Clevelandi and T. macrotheca scariosa, 

 Castilleja parviflora, Orthocarpus erianihus, Plantago maritima, 

 Eriophyllum staechadi folium, Distichlis maritima, or salt grass, 

 known to occur throughout California, but most commonly 

 found near the sea, and usually indicative of the presence of 

 brackish water. 



So far as concerns the flora of Monterey Peninsula, the plants 

 that seem to be peculiarly characteristic of the rocks along shore 

 are one species of Dudleya, Erigeron glaucus, Mesembryanihemum 

 aequilaterale, and Eriogonum latifolium. While these species are 

 not strictly confined to the exposed rocks, one rarely finds them 

 wandering very far away from shore. They have become so 

 nicely adapted to their trying environment as to develop but 

 poorly or not at all in company with those plants that so charac- 

 terize the moist, low-lying meadows, even though these border, 

 as they frequently do, along the shore zone. 



The typical rock-loving plants must comprise such as 

 are truly xerophytic and capable of thriving in a soil void 



