122 THE PLANT WORLD 



Perennial herbs are not adapted to these dry plains, and few of 

 them are included in their vegetation. But the two loveliest of these 

 few were now in their prime, a Calochortus {C. Plmiimerae), with cups of 

 richest purple, and the brilliant scarlet larkspur {Del'phinium cardinale). 

 We passed a party of girls returning to the town with large bunches of 

 these splendid blossoms. 



The sun was Ioav as we entered the pass, and rain drops began to 

 fall. Welcome as rain is in this dry climate, we felt that a wet night 

 would be a little out of place to campers unprovided with a tent. So 

 we were glad to drive into the big barn at Glen Helen, fifteen miles from 

 home. Supper was soon eaten, and spreading our blankets on the hay, 

 we congratulated ourselves that we, and our horses, and all our belong- 

 ings, were safely under shelter. 



The morning showed that the rain had been very light, just enough 

 to lay the dust and freshen the air, and make traveling delightful. We 

 were off early, ascending at an easy grade the open valley, which after 

 some miles narrows into the " box canon," from which the pass gets its 

 name. Here the road is scraped out from the scanty talus of the cliffs, 

 which part only far enough for the passage of a stream, a mere trickle 

 now, but sometimes rising in flood and tearing out the laboriously con- 

 stracted causeway. 



One would expect a pass like this to be a good collecting ground, 

 but I have always found this one a disappointment. Its only very good 

 plant is Allium pmbriatum, which has not yet been discovered else- 

 where. We got a few specimens, and on the same hillside an abun- 

 dance of fine Malacothrix Glevelandii, with a few other things worth 

 putting in the press. 



After passing through the Narrows, we left the main road and took 

 a by-way, which would conduct us to the point where the Mojave Piver 

 makes its exit from the mountains. This road was in the very bed of 

 a canon, noAv rocks, now sand, and for a long way only wide enough for 

 the passage of the wagon. It was absolutely void of any botanical in- 

 terest, so we w^ere glad to reach its head, although the steepness of the 

 grade by which we must leave it was appalling. The horses, however, 

 w^ere equal to the effort, and reaching the summit, at an altitude of 3,500 

 feet, we found ourselves at the head of a wide flat valley, which sloped 

 very gradually to the river. We were in another botanical region. The 

 ever-present shrubbery still covered the country, but its composition 

 was different. The desert peach {Primus fasciculafa) was abundant, 

 but it was evidently a bad peach season, for but few of the little fuzzy 

 fruits were to be seen. Aplopappus monactis, Audiberfia i)waua, and the 

 southern variety of Purshia tridentata were in blossom. Stops were 

 frequent, as we sprang out to gather some interesting plant. Noticeable 



