200 THK PLANT WORLD 



relatives of the phlox of the gardens, are abundant; Gilici flu- 

 cosa displays its small star-shaped flowers ev'erywhere on short 

 simple or branched stems, which, with a supply of water, take 

 on some stature and throw out laterals, but which usually send 

 up a single stem with a hairy globose head, from which every 

 d:'.y a flower opens that mav \arv in color from pure white to 

 tleep blue. The other species, G. hi<rt'l()-jii^ stays mostly on 

 tbe slopes, and its slender, shin\' stems are taller than the 

 SDccies described above. Here and there are to be found small 

 compact clusters of flowers like small white daisies borne on 

 short stems, Ercm'iastnim hcl/ioidcs, which also exhibits the 

 marks of the desert. Finding its way about, across the mesas 

 and ON'er the hill slopes, is the alfilaria, Erodiitin cicutaiiiini , 

 a relative of the geranium, which spreads its flat rosettes 

 of greenish, laciniate leavdf wherever it may find a foothold, 

 and after its pinkish flo^'^rs come the long fruits, which sow 

 the seeds so abundantly and efficiently that this plant travels 

 by leaps and bounds-. Small, straight stems, clothed with 

 hairy, linear leaves, terminate in spikes of delicate purple 

 flowers in Orthocarpiis piirpitrascens pahnoi and single indi- 

 viduals occur here and there on the mesas, in the sand and 

 gravel, but in some places so densely are they crowded that 

 great purple patches are formed on the slopes. Occasion- 

 ally an individual is found which has lost entirely the power 

 of making the characteristic color of the flowers, while others 

 lack it only partially, and of these an experimental study has 

 been begun. The Mexican poppv, Eschscholtzia mexicoiia, 

 likewise ofters many things of interest. Its flowers are light 

 yellow or ha\'e a distinct admixture of red; its petals show 

 entire margins or are deeply cut; the orange eye at the bottom 

 of the corolla cup mav be clearlv defined and sharp or dif- 

 fuse; but, most striking of all, a numl)er of indi\'iduals ha\-^" 

 been found by Professor Thornber in which the foliage has 

 a paler color than ordinary and the flowers are of a clear, 

 creamy white, the eye at the bottom being the onlv color re- 

 tained, and at the same time the margins of the petals are 



