SEASONS IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA 263 



being encountered at this season. A low straggling shrub, 

 the dragon's-blood (locally known as "sangre engrado," as 

 a corruption of sangre de drago), Jatropha cardiophylla, 

 spreads its waxy green leaves amid many other plants of a 

 grayer, more xerophytic aspect. The greater part of the 

 yellowish note in the landscape is due to the masses of Bige- 

 lovia of two species with resinous secretions. The pods of 

 the leguminous trees, including the acacias and the mesquites, 

 ripen during this season and offer abundant food to the 

 larger grazing animals. 



The purplish salver formed flowers of Solaninn eleagni- 

 foliiim, are seen everywhere in low ground producing small 

 orange colored berries which lie around in great profusion 

 until the following summer before the coat breaks down and 

 the numerous seeds are set free. A relative, Physalis longi- 

 folia is also abundant in the low lands making many whitish 

 and less conspicuous flowers. 



Two spinose shrubs, KoerberUnia spinosa and Condalia 

 spdthulata also make their comparatively inconspicuous 

 flowers and fruits during this season. The long and densely 

 grouped plumose fruits of the Arizona clematis shine silvery 

 gray on bushes and fences, and three perennial vines in addi- 

 tion come into activity, one being a milkweed {Metastelma 

 arizonica) which among other supports is often seen to at- 

 tach itself to the spiny trunks of the sahuaro. A wild pump- 

 kin {Ciiciirbita digitata), with narrow spreading divisions 

 to its leaves, spreads over the ground in many places, while 

 a re\RUve,/-J podatithera iindiilata is also abundant, the leaves 

 in both cases showing a combination of gray, green and 

 silvery color that betokens the squash family. 



Menodora scabra, a small upright plant with narrow 

 leaves and stems also well adapted to the desert displays a 

 number of inconspicuous yellow flowers during the latter 

 part of July, producing an abundant crop of seeds which 

 show a high percentage of viability. Among the various 

 kinds of seedlings that now spring up so densely as to give 



