*ATRIPLEX HYM I<:X1':LVTRA 

 AND ONE OF ITS 1 1 AI'.ITATS. 



Bv 



Rejovc K C. I'ooni, P). L. 



T( ) tlic casual traveler throu.i^li the high desert, either l)y train 

 or road, the country offers little except a monotonous out- 

 look on gray sand dotted with o-ray-green greasewood, and 

 dark green, grotesque Joshua trees or Cleistoyuccas. But to 

 the dweller in the Mojave River Valley, the desert has a more 

 cheerful jirospect. for he has ample water from the wells, and 

 fertile soil. He has, too, the opportunity of a closer acquaint- 

 ance with the native vegetation and finds il not limited to grease- 

 wood and Joshuas. Lender the bushes, where the winds have 

 mounded the fine dust, the rains and spring sunshine bring out 

 many varieties of dainty, brightly-colored fiowers. They Idoom 

 in cycles, these short-lived desert i)lants. and where one week 

 the mounds have been covered with i)ur];le, the next will find 

 them palely yellow or deeply gold. In a coujile of months the 

 hot dry air has taken the surface moisture, and the kaleidoscope 



passes. 



There is one desert plant, iKwvever, that is an alkthe-year- 

 round delight. It changes with the seasons, but is always beau- 

 tiful. It asks for little water, and only a tiny bit of soil with 

 just enough room to s(|ueezc its roots between the r(jcks. It is 

 commonly known 1)\- various names— goose-foot, salt-bush and 

 desert holly, but the most suital)le and charming is that of 

 "Ghost Hollv." It is unfortunate that the popular fancy in 

 nomenclature so often gives the same name to similar but quite 

 different plants. The appellation of "Desert Holly" has been 

 made not onlv to this Atriplex of the Goose-foot Family, but 

 also to the Perezia Nana, a Compositae of Arizona and Texas, 



*The botanical term Atriplex hymentdytra is a Solecism, and like so 

 many of the technical words in the sciences, its combination of Latin and 

 Greek cannot be translated. 



The word Atriplex is an ancient Latm name oi obscure meanmg but 

 undoubtedly a corruption of the Greek Atraphaxis, the name of an edible 

 garden herb called orache, a plant somewhat similar to spinach. 



HymcHclytra is composed of two Greek words— //yfnrw, the God ot 

 Marriage, and ciciifron — n cover or slieath. 



In entomology the word hvmenelytra is applied to the lorward pair ot 

 more powerful wings which serve as a protection to the delicate posterior 



Perhaps the term, "The wedding veiled Holl\" would approximate the 

 meaning of the botanical name, although tiie plant is really not a Holly, 

 this familiar appellation having been given it by reason of the resemblance 

 of the sheen and the spiny curved edges of its olive green leaves to the 



well known Hex luiuifdliiiiii— Note by the Editor. 



37 



