The American Botanist 



VOL. XVI 



JOLIET, ILL., NOVEMBER, 1910 



No. 4 



"*!J look alofiff t/ie dusti/, dpeary ivai/. 



So lately stneivn ivith blossoms, fres/i and gay, 



^he sweet procession of the yean is past, 

 y^nd ivithened, iv/iirling leaves run rattling fast 

 Qike throngs of tatter d beggars, following 

 yVhere late went by the pageant of a liing." 



— Kemble. 



SOME TREES OF THE CALIFORNIA DESERTS. 



By Charles Francis Saunders. 



ONE of the paradoxes of life in Southern CaHfornia is the 

 fact that the finest firewood is obtained from the desert. 

 This is mesquite, a superlatively good wood, the sticks often a 

 foot or more in diameter — solid, honest fuel through and 

 through, slow burning like lump coal and leaving very little 

 ash. That it retails in Pasadena at $15 to $17 per cord is un- 

 impeachable evidence of its worth. 



Few facts strike the visitor to the western rim of our con- 

 tinent more forcibly than this fact that the desert produces any- 

 thing of worth, and especially that trees grow upon it. Yet 

 the tree lover finds very interesting material awaiting him on 

 these arid stretches, which in California, are known as the 

 Mojave and the Colorado Deserts. The latter, so-called be- 

 cause the Colorado River skirts its eastern border, is the prin- 

 cipal home of the mesquite within the state. This is a low, 

 widely branching tree, sometimes half buried in drifting 

 dunes, so that only the upper limbs and feathery foliage are 

 visible. At times two or three old trees are found growing so 



F3CTANiC. 



