30 LORQUINIA 
tion I was able to make. A. fasciculatiun was entirely out of bloom, 
while A. sparsifolium was in full flower, so there is probably little 
opportunity for crossing. The two species are the only members 
of this isolated genus of Rosaceae, which is entirely confined to 
California in distribution. Yet they are remarkably unlike. A. 
fasciciilatum is a smaller shrub with the leaves needle-like but 
rather fat, in fascicles. A. sparsifolium is considerably taller, reaching 
twenty feet in height, has its leaves scattered, and much longer and 
more slender. It is also delightfully fragrant. The two species 
difi^er also in the coloring of their bark and in other respects. 
Altogether they constitute a very interesting pair of species, and 
a study of their variability, particularly in the region where they 
overlap, would be of much interest. 
R. R. GATES, 
University of California. 
THE VARIETIES OF THE CALIFORINIA MUD TURTLE, 
OR CLEMMYS MARMORATO 
As far as we know there is only one species of the California 
Mud Turtle {Cleniinys inannorato, Baird & Girard). Of two speci- 
mens I have, the shell of one is five and a half by four and a half 
inches, while that of the other is four and a half by three and three- 
fourths inches. Both are adults from the immediate vicinity of Los 
Angeles. The smaller one, which is the common specimen, has on 
the upper surface of its shell five broad plates down the center, 
and four similar ones in a row on each side, twenty-four smaller 
plates around the edge of the shell and a narrow one above the neck. 
On the larger turtle, from front to back in the center, the first 
three plates are like those ordinarily in the common species, the 
fourth is divided diagonally and the fifth is divided in such a manner 
as to make one oblong and one triangular shape. Of the two rows 
on either side of the center row, the right has five plates, the last 
being small; the left has six plates, the last two being small. Under 
the edge of the shell, the smaller turtle has twenty-four plates, while 
the larger has twenty-seven. Each has the same number of plates 
on the plastron. 
ROBERT ELWIN, 
Los Angeles. 
