VOL. I.] A Mon<rcio2is Willow. 41 



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natives as '* Palo de San Juan," or St. John's tree, the systematic 

 position of which in botany is yet unknown, holds its leaves and 



remains green. 



The large extent of country between Magdalena Bay and La Paz 

 is mostly covered with cactus and bushes ten feet or less in height, 

 the most common of these bushes being Foiiquieria sphiosa, known 

 to the natives as *' Palo de Adam/' and Jalropha canesccns. These 

 two species w^ere leafless in the early part of January, and their 

 preponderance gave to the region an unusually dry and barren ap- 

 pearance, but the occurrence of a rainstorm almost immediately 

 changed the face of the country. Fouquieria put out leaves at 

 once, and a few days later was covered with foliage. The broader 



J 



Fou- 



quieria seems to lose its leaves quickly, and I was told that every 

 rainstorm produced a new set, so that it necessarily goes through 

 this process several times during the year. 



A MONCECIOUS WILLOW. 



BY C. L. ANDERSON. 



The willows being, as has been said, the bete noir of botanists, we 

 may expect many strange freaks in that family. I find it necessary 

 to live with them from year to year before they can be known. 

 Living with a grove of them at my back door I have become 

 somewhat familiar with some half a dozen species. 



Botanists say they are dioecious ; and so they are, as a rule. I 

 have however in my back lot an exception. It is monoecious 

 bearing both staminate and pistillate flowers on the same catkin. 



This particular willow is not uncommon among these trees in this 

 locality, and has each spring given me some anxiety because I had 

 no name for it. For a time I considered it a form of Salix lasiandra 

 very near the typical. But finding several trees with male and 

 female flowers on the same anient I have come to a different con- 

 clusion. 



In the early settlement of this locality by the missionaries Salix 



Babylonica (weeping willow) was introduced and there are many 

 fine large trees in existence now. They are all pistillate as far as I 

 have examined. I feel quite sure that my moncecious willow is a 

 hybrid of S. Babylonica and 5. lasiandra. The trees have the 



