This volume of the Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences is a vast collection of research papers dedicated to the exploration and documentation of the flora and fauna of California. The papers span the entirety of the Academy's contributions and provide a broad overview of the groundbreaking scientific work being performed there during the mid-Twentieth century. Readers interested in the natural world will delight in this glimpse into the work of one of America's foremost scholarly organizations. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.