SPRING AT THE GRAND CANON 97 



this region. In April they were without flowers or leaves. The 

 rose family has some beautiful representatives easily distin- 

 guished by the persistent leaves. The cliff rose (Cowania stans- 

 buriana) is the most abundant. It has minute fan-shaped 

 divided leaves with the edges turned under and a viscid lower 

 surface. This shrub has flowers like those of the strawberry, 

 close to the stem and followed by small bunches of curling 

 plumes that surround every branch with a halo. The mountain 

 mahogany has similar feathers to carry off the seeds, but only 

 one to each flower, and the flowers are not especially notice- 

 able, being small and brownish green. One species, Cercocarpus 

 ledifolius, has narrow smooth shiny green leaves with the edges 

 folded under, while the other, Cercocarpus parvifolius, or a 

 variety of that species has small toothed pubescent leaves. 

 The most attractive of all these rosaceous shrubs is Fallugia 

 paradoxa, the Apache plume. The leaves resemble those of the 

 cliff rose but are downy instead of viscid on the lower surface. 

 The flowers are like small white roses daintily tipping slender 

 white stems and are followed in fruit by gray, pink-tinged pom- 

 pons that have suggested the appropriate common name. 



Another rosaceous shrub quite common along the rim is 

 Chamaebatiaria millefolia. The leaves are fern-like with fine 

 delicate divisions and the flowers are in a close panicle surmount- 

 ing the stems. The dry seed-pods persist all winter on the 

 shrubby stems. Several varieties of service berry (Amelanchier) 

 grow in the canon and along the rim. Dow T n in the canon the 

 bushes are in full bloom while at the rim the buds are not yet 

 beginning to open. Entire bushes are clothed with a mantle 

 of white, followed later by blue-black berries somewhat resem- 

 bling the fruit of the hawthorn. A striking shrubby barberry 

 is common along the rim and also lower down. Clumps of it 

 several feet high can be seen here and there from the train after 

 leaving El Tovar. The leaves are compound, with three or 

 five leaflets, armed along the edges with sharp spines. In 

 June these bushes are laden with racemes of yellow flowers and 

 have great beauty. The large-leaved large-fruited yucca (Y. 

 baccata) is found with the junipers and barberries. 



