278 THE PLANT WORLD. 



with the deep green ice-plants, and very low cypresses, so 

 small, in fact, as well nigh to resemble herbs. Oft toward the 

 sea there is a prarie with the ice-plants, the clover and such 

 low plants only, and this is traversed by one line of trees. 

 In summer this land is baked, and so, in spots, it is quite 

 barren ; in other places there are only the low cypresses. 

 Just over the line is the first house in Mexico, deserted since 

 no man knows when. A blue gum in front and two other 

 smaller trees shade it, and among the cypresses in the garden 

 is a single palm. 



Beyond this house, the Ioav scrubby fields have not alone 

 the ice-plant, but a low aloe, provided with thorns on the leaf 

 margins, and boasting a tall flower-stalk with green fruit in 

 bunches much like those of tiny bananas. Then there are 

 the beautiful yellow daisies of the camomile-like leaf. Black- 

 eyed Susans, and a low white flower, much like the sweet 

 alyssum, and other tiny white flowers, like diminutive bach- 

 elor's-buttons. In iact, some fifty-eight varieties of flowers 

 have been found here at one gathering. Attractive indeed 

 are these wild flowers if from their numbers only. The yel- 

 lows, however, are so far in the majority, as to make yellow 

 the general hue. 



Areas of prickly pear extend oceanward, and the grass 

 is filled with yellow daisies and the larger yellow camomile. 

 At the end of the valley there is a great cluster of cactus, a 

 very spiny variety which the guide explains is a "cacti and 

 not a cactus." 



On the sand a wiry grass and an aloe-like ivy with blue 

 flowers thrive. Down here is the border monument, the "tip- 

 top bottom" of the republic. A great white paling encloses 

 it, and inside this the ground is bare save for a few yellow 

 daisies, the southwesternmost flowers in the country. 



