58 THE PLANT WORLD 



Still, all the original roots which belonged to each separate part were upon 

 only one side of it, and it seems probable that their underground growth 

 had a tendency to draw the unsynimetrical new tree in their direction, 

 especially as there was little or no similar opposing force. Such a result 

 of growth force would be no more remarkable than that which is produced 

 by many other plants, the Wistaria for example. The slender, swaying 

 lianes of this woody climber, when they have secured a firm upper hold, 

 are often drawn so strongly toward the ground that they become as taut 

 as the shrouds of a ship, and even injure by their tension the buildings 

 upon which they climb. 



Plate 10 is copied from a photographic \'iew of the Garden of Geth- 

 semane, a small portion of the east side of the Valley of Jehosaphat, and 

 a part of the southeastern base of the Mount of Olives. Within the walls 

 of the garden there are about a dozen each of cypress and olive trees. 

 Seven of the latter are very old, their huge trunks being deeply and rudely 

 lobed and fissured, and some of them partially, but not fully, divided. 

 All the trees shown outside the garden walls are olives, most of which are 

 single trees of normal growth, but some of them, especially of those in 

 the foreground, are in pairs and clusters. Each pair or cluster, although 

 the component trees are now fully separate, has evidently originated by 

 fission of a single tree, as explained in the foregoing remarks. 



Smithsoiiiau Institution. 



Botanizing in a Cactus Bed. 



By Charles Francis Saunders. 



The Eastern plant student on his first visit to Southern California has 

 a number of new things to learn, one of which is that a sunburnt, deso- 

 late-looking, turfless hillside, dotted with clumps of savage tuna-cactus 

 sprawling about in all sorts of threatening attitudes and frequently as 

 high as a man's head, is by no means to be despised as a collecting 

 ground. As a matter of fact the plant-lover may visit such a hillside day 

 after day when the winter rains have quickened vegetation into growth, 

 and be confident of entertainment every time, for the variety of plant life 

 that gathers about these cactus clumps and thrives among their stings 

 and prickles is surprising. Doubtless such plants find comfort in the 

 comparative shade of the great flat joints, which insures them a longer 

 enjoyment of the night dews than would be possible on the more exposed 

 places where there is no relief from the persistent sunshine. 



Right out of the heart of such fastnesses of spines the sunny blooms 

 of the California Oxeye often rise in great yellow masses, and in the 



