The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY 



OF AMERICA. 



Vol. V. JULY, 1903. No. 7. 



THROUGH DESERT AND MOUNTAIN IN SOUTHERN 



CALIFORNIA. 



By S. B. Parish. 



IT was already afternoon when the friend who was to accompany me 

 arrived. I had not expected him until the following morning, but 



we determined to start at once, since we wished to see as much of 

 the country as his limited time would permit. Everyone bustled about 

 to hasten the final preparations, so that a few hours of daylight yet 

 remained when we drove away. The road lay across the sloping mesa 

 to the Cajon, the pass through which the Santa Fe Railroad enters the 

 San Bernadine Valley from the Mojave Desert. 



Rough shrubs thickly clothe this mesa, a plant-covering very preva- 

 lent on the plains and hills of southern California. Here the most 

 abundant species, was the Chemiso {Adenostoma fasciculatum), with 

 which were mingled the holly plum {Prumis iUci folia), and the bushy 

 pentstemon {P. antirrhinoides), still displaying a few of its lemon-yellow 

 flowers. Impenetrable masses of 02nmtia were covered with lurid red 

 or yellow blossoms. Fairest of all the stately Yucca scapes (F. Whipplei), 

 ten or fifteen feet high, bore aloft their immense spikes, loaded with 

 hundreds of waxy bells, pure white or purple-tinted, and in scores lit up 

 the darkening landscape. The annuals, which are wont to carpet the 

 intervals in variegated pattern, had withered, or remained only in ves 

 tiges, for it was the 29th of May, and the winter had been one of 

 unusual and protracted drought. 



