150 Plants of Baja Caltfornia. [ZOE 
tions of the fruit, and humming-birds are continually flying through 
the branches. Sometimes in cafions this fig bears numerous aerial 
rootlets, but generally the trunk is smooth and light-colored. Along 
trails and thoroughfares the trunks are marked with crosses, intitials, 
etc., following a custom too common for the beauty of our madrofios, 
alders, etc., in Alta California. 
EUPHORBIA MAGDALEN& is not the only species which has its 
involucres distorted into galls, though they appear to have been 
seldom noticed. They occur in nearly the same form in plants from | 
Todos Santos, referred by C. F. Millspaugh to. &. versicolor, and in 
two other species from the Cape; in these latter, however, the galls 
are oblong or ovoid and sometimes of considerable size. 
ZEPHYRANTHES ARENICOLA is common on the mainland opposite 
Santa Margarita Island, and grows much larger than the cultivated 
specimen from which the description was drawn. A yellow flowered 
species also grows with it, and both render the barren sandy soil 
they inhabit more attractive. 
BEHRIA TENUIFLORA isa liliaceous plant resembling very much in 
general appearance the ‘‘fire cracker’’ ( Brevoortia coccinea) of our 
northern coast counties. Its scarlet flowers can be found from Todos 
Santos and San José to the top of the mountains, and are well worthy 
of introduction into our gardens. 
PHCENIX DACTYLIFERA, the date palm, is planted in damp alka- 
line soil and does well. Whether it grows better in such situations. 
or is planted there because the soil will grow no other useful plant, I 
do not know, but it certainly thrives and bears quantities of fruit. 
WASHINGTONIA SONOR# is a common palm about San José and 
other settlements. The large leaves are used for roofing the houses. — 
of the poorer classes and then afford a lodging place for snakes, 
lizards and mice. On the eastern slopes of the high mountains both 
Washingtoniaand Erythea are abundant along the streams, growing ~ 
to be forty or fifty feet in height. On the western slope, I saw very 
ade but at Todos Santos and other places Washingtonia is cultiva- 
ted. 
The Cape Region, although the number of its ferns is small, 
produces more than would be expected. Cheilanthes Pringlet 
comes down nearer to the Cape than any of them, and can be found 
on shaded banks within two miles of San José del Cabo. The 
presence of Gymnogramme trifoliata about the gardens of Todos. 
