33 6 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Yellow-flowered Opuntia. 



(Zygophyllacese) of which the plant is a representative, are coated with 

 appressed hairs and varnished with a resinous secretion. After the 

 advent of a rain, or if watered, the plant quickly responds, the leaves 

 becoming bright green and its delicate yellow flowers coming out in 



great numbers. The shrub is flat 



1 topped, and in large areas where 



-ttt* ^ ew °th er s0 l ar g' e specimens 

 grow, the foliage of many plants 

 lies in a uniform layer parallel 

 to the ground. The hard twigs 

 and branches make excellent fuel 

 particularly for the camp cook's 

 tire. 



Associated with the creosote 

 bush, in numbers varying with 

 the locality, are several species 

 of cacti of the genus Opuntia, but of the type of Opuntia 

 arboresccns. and not possessed of the flattened branches of the 

 common prickly pear. Of these, which are more dense tree-like 

 in form, the one known locally as the cholla* attracts one's attention 

 most quickly. Its smaller branches, clothed with numerous white 

 spines, are curiously massed into formless bunches many of the smaller 

 joints hanging down and sooner or later breaking off. Thus collect be- 

 neath the plant piles of dejecta membra, many dead, some dying. These 

 broken off parts may serve to propagate the plant ; when seed-pods are 

 so cast off they more likely serve this end. In the agglomerations of 

 branches just described birds cunningly build their nests; and these 

 are hardly to be noticed but for 

 the knowledge that they are fre- 

 quently found in such places. 

 The few stout ungainly stems of 

 these plants, and, as one may say, 

 the weird disposition of the lesser 

 branches, glistening in their coat- 

 ing of gray shining spines, pro- 

 duce a habit which, in the lan- 

 guage of the advertisement, is 

 peculiar to itself. When, as often 

 happens, the cholla has the monop- 

 oly of the situation, the desert 



aspect becomes very pronounced. Two other species of this type are 

 common, the so-called Opuntia spinosior, with pink flowers, and an- 

 other (0. versicolor) , with yellow ones. These, however, do not show 

 * Pronounced Cho-ya (Opuntia fulgida) . 



Twig of Palo vekde. 



