OBSERVATIONS IN THE COLORADO DESERT 



87 



fornia it has been collected only at Mountain Springs. The trunk 

 is 1-5 feet high, and the few dry remains of infioresence were 

 about 3 feet tall. It is desirable that fruit and flowers should be 

 collected at this station. 



The three shrubs mentioned are plentiful in the neighborhood 

 of the Springs, growing among the rocks of the little benches of 

 the canyon. With them grow Ephedra nevadensis, a small shrub, 

 and Thamnosma montanum, and Mirabilis californica aspera, 

 two sufTrutescent xerophytes. All might well be included among 

 the petrophytes, which, since granitic rocks afford much the 



Fig. 4. A Mesquite near the border of a dry channel, 

 cates an insufficient water supply. 



Its appearance indi- 



greater part of the substratum, constitute the most of the flora. 

 Lithophytes, so far as the hasty examination permits one to speak, 

 were not in evidence; but as the rocks are full of seams, and the 

 ravines offer a variety of aspects, chasmophytes abound. Among 

 them are Dudley a pulverulenta, Echinocacius cylindraceus , Ma- 

 millaria phellosperma and one or two Plalopunlias; together with 

 Fagonia californica and Hofmiesteria pluriseta. The sporo- 

 phytes were represented by a sterile Selaginella of the S. rupestris 

 group, and two ferns, Nolholaena Parryi and Cheilanthes viscida, 

 all abundant. 



Some distance above the Springs a bed of sand fills the channel 



