198 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



meal. The tree yucca (Yucca arbores- 

 cens), the most weird and spectral of all 

 the desert trees, yields an excellent, 

 corky fibre as well as meal from its 

 fruit. This spongy fibre serves as stor- 

 age tissue for this tree, whose strange 

 habits and appearance would furnish 

 material enough for a long article. 



The native desert palm is almost wor- 

 shipped by the Coahuila Indians. And 

 little wonder, for from it they obtain 

 food, fibre, shade and material for their 

 rude, thatched huts. These Indians 

 have many rights and superstitions con- 

 nected with this palm. When a child is 

 born its parents plant a palm. The tree 

 becomes the special property of this child 

 and as soon as he gets old enough to un- 

 derstand he is given full charge of it, 

 cultivating it and worshipping it through- 

 out his lifetime. When he dies the tree 

 is cut down and burned to ashes. 



We are apt to think that the more con- 

 spicuous plants, especially fitted to en- 

 dure the hardships of desert life, are the 

 only ones that can exist under such try- 

 ing conditions ; but this is not so. The 



ordinary annuals have their oart in the 

 desert blossom time. A sjudden rain 

 comes, and like magic the sandy plains 

 and barren canons become transformed 

 by gorgeous, wind-blown tapestries of 

 poppies, lupines, primroses, violets and 

 verbenas. Here, too, we find the an- 

 nuals "making the most of" the brief 

 ■span of life allotted them. Maturity fol- 

 lows closely on the heels of vouth. Every 

 flower seems to join in the mad rush 

 to bloom and ripen seed. Three or four 

 weeks and the transient glory fades, 

 and what was a riotous tangle of blos- 

 soms lapses back into sun-baked desert 

 again. 



If one would study a new side of 

 plant life, let him follow in the wake 

 of spring in the desert. The habits 

 of many of the well-known species, as 

 well as those of the unique species which 

 belong to the arid sections alone, will 

 afford ample material for years of orig- 

 inal investigation, and as one studies, a 

 side of nature undreamed of before will 

 become revealed. 



