r
f URSDAy, APRIL 14, 1938
PAGE FIVE
be that such distinct endemics as the There are certain species, as Erysi- Islan¢ in San Francisco Bay. The
,.,.1,, ny of California Isles Crossosoma and Lyonothamnus have mum insulare Greene (with yellow foxes suggest that mere isolation, re-
[ I~"~i continuously occupied this land or flowers and spreading pods), and gardless of the special environment,
By T. D. A. Cockerell what there was of it above water, since Opuntia littoralis Engelm. (with yellow has brought about the differentiation;
[ Y~"~ ~ (12 ~ Mid-Tertiary time or earlier. Most of spines) which are extremely character- but as a matter of fact the islands do
ontinued from last week) ~he endemics, however, are quite close- istic of the islands but have been re- present some very diverse conditions.
ly related to species of the mainland, moved from the list of endemics, be- 'thus it can be well understood that
~OUthern islands have been vis- and may be presumed to have evolvedcause they occur in certain regions on the white-footed mice from the moun-
many botanists, especially of dmmg or since the Pleistocene. Somethe mainland. It seems not impossible tainous, rocky, forested Santa Cruz
nta Catalina which is a faro- of them seem very well adapted to that they were originally, true endem- should be darker than those from the
resort, and is easily reached, sand-dunes of San Miguel.
thei: surroundings, and flourish ex- ics, and somehow got carried across
paugh and L. \V. Nuttall ccedingly. 1 visited San Miguel with the water. The Indians might have 1 have tried to find evidence of
le(! a Flora of banta Cata- a group of Senior Boy Scouts, and no- used the prickly-pear fruits for food cases among the tnants to paraiiel
(1923', which is very com-ticed, as Greene had fifty-one years and so transported them. They mightthose of the mammals and birds. One
including not only the before, how the grey-green bladder even have found nutriment in the of the best seems to be in the Malva-
[ants and ferns but the
species), the He'paticae (8 pod, Astragalus miguelensis Greene,abundant yellow seeds of the Erysi-ceae, with Malvastrmn catalinense
overran the island. It has an advant- nmm; the weeds of Salvia columbariae, Lastwood on Santa Catalina, M. elem-
e lichens (167 species andage (which of course did not exist according to Millspaugh and Nuttatl, entinum Munz and Johnston on San
he fungi (203 species) andwhen it first evolved) in not being eat- were ground into meal, for porridgeClemcnte, and M. nesioticum Robinson
zoa (8 species). Twenty- eu to any extent by the sheep. Mr. and cakes, on Santa Cruz. But what about that
's.of fungx are described as Robert Brooks tells me that it is pot- The clearest cases ot true island en- other more interesting member of the
Is very likely that none is sonous to them, a sort of loco-weed, demics, that is, forms, which have de- family, the Malva Rosa or Tree Mal-
Several occur on cul- low, Lavatera assurgentiflora Kellogg ?
introduced plants. Including He also states that the excessivelyveloped their special character upon
(races), the recorded flower- abundant ice-plant, Mesembryanthe-
ferns of the eight is-
appears to number
may perhaps be surmised
:tually about 900 dis-
island herbar-
northern isla.ms only)
Q'f the approx, mately or
about one third
the northern and
ands, one third on the
only, and one third on
But it must be added
eleven island endemics
munl crystallinum, acts as a purgative
on the sheep, and is avoided, though
at a pinch it can serve as a source of
enough water to maintain life. This
Mesembryanthemmn is also African,
and is generally supposed to have been
introduced from Africa, but Greene ar-
gues strongly that it is indigenous.
There are strand plants, such as Con-
volvulus soldanella (which Hoffmann
collected on Santa Cruz) which are
widely distributed over the world,
probably through the agency of birds.
the islands, are found among the mam-
mals. Baird in 1857, described the
small fox Urocyon littoralis from San
Miguel Island. We now know special
races of this animal, each with distinc-
tive characters, from Santa Catalina,
San Clemente, San Nicolas, Santa Cruz
and Santa Rosa. The smaller Santa
Barbara and Anacapa appear to be
without foxes. The remarkable ten-
dency of mammals to form insular
races is shown by the recent discov-
erv of a special kind of mole (Seapanus
la{imanus insularis Pahner) on Angel
Millspaugh and Nuttall, in Their Flora
of Catalina, state that the type locality
is Anacapa Island (where Hoffmaml
collected it on Sept. 22, 1930) and that
the only other locality is Bird Rock,
not a quarter of a mile from Fisher-
man's Cove, Catalina. They add that
Greene described a number of sup-
posed species, all based on plants
known to have been transplanted from
Anacapa or Bird Rock. This last
statement is not correct, for Greene, in
his very interesting account of his visit
(Continued on page 8, col. 2)
far to the south, on "..W~~. - :..: - :: 2 2": :7.':.:: ..~.';+.'~~~.,~N.'.R~..~.,g.~.~.~i~~~~~"
rod, which is out on the
~es S.W. from Point San ~
~r California. One of the
Pinus renl°rata is als° i! reported ~ ~
'os island near i'he coast
ornia It'is also
m the'Pleistocene of Car-
'ar" Santa Barbara' but it isi ~cO@ ~~~ ~~
~ that it grew there. Cha-
~ason have described a Pleis- °
a of nine species found on
'z" A" the species'arc hying' ~ ~0~ V~ ~~~~~t~~~ ~
ue (Pmus remorata) still ex-
~r Ot the islands. The flora is
~st resemble tb_at about Fort ~1¢
nnles N.N.W. It includes
~ns of Pseudotsuga taxifolia,
COnes of Cnpressus Gore
:ds of Garrya elliptma etc.
~t mammoths (Elephas),
Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and
ei are perhaps contemporan-
this flora "At all events,
~ole exception of the pine,. ~t
~dntO be replaced by a qmte
nil more xerophilc'ms flora.
ahow the latter arrived re-
postulate a large area of
:d Catalinia existing during
e Tertiary time, and it may
I;I N.gATI4ROOH I
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e.1, V mahze in hurry [
~-usand satisfactory
I
WOrk. Give us that
nity . PP " - [
mUch desiredo mtu
ity to prove our abd- I
l~lum,t° you. Premier I ~"~~'~~~'~'~~'~'~'~'~~~~.~~.:~.'~~
l~r" hers w h o serveI [ ~~~~~.~.~.~~~.~.~.~.'~.'~~'.+.'~~~.~'~~~.
1 FRIGIDAIRE [
17 Whittley Ave l
