that overhung the bank, by a shot which we hazarded at some as they flew from a pool a hundred yards or so ahead of us. In the solitude of such places as this, these birds find secure retreats; and from the half dried-up pools have their fill of fishes, crustacea and reptiles which, when the water becomes nearly exhausted by the summer's drought, are so numerous in the little pools to which they are confined as to keep the water in constant agitation.

THE CALIFORNIAN TRIVIA AND SOME
POINTS IN ITS DISTRIBUTION.

BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS.

Fig. 144.

Balanophyllia.

In the month of March, 1868, Mr. W. G. W. Harford and myself made a short visit to Monterey for the purpose of collecting, devoting most of the time to an investigation of the outer or ocean shore of Point Piños in the vicinity of the lighthouse. Here are great numbers of granite boulders which have been thrown up by the sea; by wading in at low tide to a depth of two or three feet, and conveying to the shore such stones as could be lifted by us, we were able to make a deliberate and careful examination. Upon the under side of some of the heavy boulders, we found numerous colonies of the corals, Paracyathus Stearnsii and Balanophyllia elegans (Fig. 144), described by Prof. Verrill of Yale; when first taken from the water and therefore alive, these corals are of a beautiful red color, a shade between orange and scarlet, and vivid as a coal of fire; when dead the stony portion soon fades and becomes a dingy white. Upon these brilliantly colored coral animals, the animal of Trivia Californica (Fig. 145, shell, enlarged twice) subsists, at least in part, for I cannot assert that it does not, like other Californians, seek a variety in its bill of fare, and it is not unlikely that it feeds sometimes upon the jelly-like portion of the living sponges. The animal of Trivia Californica (Fig. 146, enlarged twice) is of the same color as the animal of B. elegans; the mantle and

Fig. 145.

Trivia, shell.

body a vivid orange-scarlet; the body proportionally very much shorter posteriorly and narrower than in Trivia Europaa Mont. (Fig. 147, natural size), as figured in Adams' Genera, Vol. iii, pl. 28, fig. 5; towards and at the end of the proboscis, the color tones into a reddish-brown; the eyes are upon slight protuberances upon the outer base of the tentacles; the color of the mantle (which is quite thin and almost transparent) when extended over the back of the shell is neutralized by the purple color of the latter, and the edge of the mantle appears to be slightly waved, and is alternately closely dotted with small whitish and brownish. spots; small whitish papillose spots may also be seen irregularly placed on the surface and sides of the mantle; the animal is quite active; from a fancied resemblance to beans, our Spanish Californians residing along the coast call the shells which they frequently find on the beaches, "frijoles." The Trivia is also found in the Gulf of California.

Fig. 146.

Trivia Californica.

Fig. 147.

Trivia Europæa.

An interesting fact pertaining to the distribution of this and quite likely other related species is worthy of notice. Bodega Head, where in June, 1867, accompanied by Dr. W. Newcomb, I made a collection, is about one hundred and forty miles north of Point Piños, and consists of an abrupt but not very extensive outcropping of coarse granite similar to the rocks of Point Piños; at Bodega I detected the same species of corals and the Trivia, subsequently collected at the Monterey station; the corals seem to affect the harder rock, for at the intervening points where I have made collections, I have been unable to find either of the corals or a solitary Trivia, the coast being composed almost exclusively of the sedimentary rocks.

The common shore shell, Littorina planaxis, also appears partial to the granite, though sometimes found on the shales.

From the above it may be inferred, other requirements being present, especially the proper temperature of the water, that the occurrence of the corals is coincident with the presence of the granite, that of the Trivia with the corals upon which it feeds;

it may be that the Littorina, the animal unlike that of the Trivia being a vegetarian, finds its favorite food in some marine vegetable form peculiar to the granite, or that some form of vegetation, which grows upon the shales as well as the harder rock, has some quality imparted to it by the granite which renders it more palatable to the Littorina, and hence its apparent preference for a granitic habitat or station.

THE ALPINE FLORA OF COLORADO.

BY REV. E. L. GREENE.

By means of the collections made and distributed a few years since by Dr. C. C. Parry and Messrs. Hall and Harbour, the botany of the Alpine region of the Rocky Mountains is very well represented to the few who have been able to avail themselves of sets of specimens made by these collectors. Dr. Parry has been collecting in this region again during the past season, and will probably soon be ready to distribute sets that will very beautifully represent this Alpine flora of our West. For the pleasure of many interested parties, who may fail to procure these rare and valuable collections, we purpose giving, through our common friend the NATURALIST, a brief sketch of some of these beauties of the higher mountains, as they appear to one who has more than once visited them in their Alpine homes.

At the altitude of nearly eleven thousand feet, as one passes upward among the pines and spruces which become more scattering in numbers, and more and more dwarfed in stature, because we are rapidly approaching the limit of trees, no one who notices flowers will fail to observe first of all, the brilliant painted cup (Castilleia), the scarlet flowered varieties of which might at first be mistaken for the common Castilleia coccinea. But this plant is of a quite distinct species; and notwithstanding the exceeding brightness of its flowers, at this particular altitude, passing as they do into almost every possible shade of red, and sometimes to a beautiful mauve or purple (so that it is difficult to find two different roots producing the same color of flower), its true name is

Castilleia pallida, or pale painted cup; for in the marshes below, say at an altitude of seven thousand feet, and from that point upwards to near the timber line, wherever the plant grows, it bears handsome pale cream-colored flowers. Also above the timber line where it again appears and continues in a very reduced form to flourish at twelve thousand feet, the flowers are pallid again, though with a more decidedly yellowish cast, in the very dwarf and high-alpine variety.

One seldom meets with such exceedingly beautiful wild flowers as are found in just this region of the last of the trees. From their sources on the borders of snow fields just above, noisy streamlets come dancing down, their banks often fairly crowded, and their foaming waters hidden by the luxuriant foliage, and pendent blue flower-clusters of Mertensia Sibirica. Where the stream is broader and the water shallow, the splendid Primula Parryi almost startles you as you come suddenly upon it, so tropically rich are its light green, showy leaves, and its heavy umbels of large, magenta-purple flowers. Altogether the finest plant of the Rocky Mountains, it seems almost strange that it should have selected its home so near the everlasting snows, and in a region so remote from the haunts of men. It grows usually in thick clumps, in the midst of shallow parts of the streams, its roots running down among the rocks; though sometimes we have found it in very wet, shady ground away from the running waters.

Saxifraga punctata, with very fine roundish leaves, and elegant panicles of pinkish flowers, usually grows in the shallow streamlets with this beautiful Primula, and also Mimulus luteus, well enough known in some fine cultivated varieties. In wet shade at about this altitude we find plenty of Caltha leptose pula, calling to mind the marsh marigold so abundant in wet meadows on the other side of the Mississippi; but this Alpine species bears only one flower to a stem, the color of which is bluish outside and white within. Nor must we omit to mention the beautiful perennial larkspur (Delphinium elatum), whose deep blue spikes are another decided ornament to this region; nor the two very pretty purple-flowered species of Pedicularis (P. Grænlandica and P. Sudetica); nor Parnassia fimbriata with its beautifully fringed white petals.

In drier soils, among the now dwarfed and scattering pines (Pinus contorta and P. aristata), we find plenty of a very pretty, small, blue-flowered Polemonium (P. pulchellum), and likewise a

variety of Eriogonum umbellatum, with cream-colored umbels. And here we must leave unmentioned almost countless species and varieties of Senecio, several interesting saxifrages and crowfoots, and daisy-like Erigerons, and pass upward toward the snows. Leaving below the last of the stunted specimens of spruce and pine and rising to those vast, treeless, grassy slopes that lie just above the limit of trees, we enter upon a new field. Woody plants are yet represented by straggling willows of several species, growing possibly to the height of one or two feet, and often monopolizing considerable tracts of land. One may chance also to find a patch of the rare, high-alpine laurel, attaining a height of perhaps one inch, but bearing beautiful large red flowers. This is supposed to be a form of Kalmia glauca. It is however seldom met with. Of herbaceous flowering plants, here at an altitude of twelve thousand feet, there yet remain some splendid examples. Polemonium confertum, in its typical form, is one of the finest of this handsome genus; yet this is surpassed by a variety (P. confertum, var. mellitum) of the same species. The first mentioned form, growing on bleak, open ground, either level or sloping northward or westward, is smaller every way, except in the darkblue corolla. The variety grows taller, has a luxuriant foliage, and usually pale or almost white flowers. It has gained some excellent points of character by selecting for its abiding places the shelter of high rocks, on the south sides where it is well protected from cold winds and driving storms of snow, which not unfrequently visit these sublime heights, even in August, the flower month; and that, to the greater inconvenience of flower gatherers, than of the flowers themselves. The largest plant of these altitudes is a coarse, hoary composite (Actinella grandiflora), growing some eight or ten inches high, and producing heads of yellow flowers as large as those of the wild sunflower of the plains. Here, where so few things rise to the height of more than two or three inches, this species becomes very conspicuous. It usually grows on very exposed situations, and the large heads of flowers, borne upon stout and well clothed stems, turn their backs to the storms, and remain stoically indifferent to the peltings of every sleeting blast that sweeps over their dreary abode. Mertensia alpina is one of the most elegant of these tenants of the heights. With its stems, three or four inches high, bearing bunches of deep blue, nodding flowers, it looks remarkably pretty,