THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 99 



branch. Yet its leafage is inconspicuous, the verdant aspect 

 being due to the greenness of the smooth bark which covers 

 both trunk and Hmbs. 



The above mentioned trees grow very scatteringly about 

 the desert, the individuals as a rule far separated from one 

 another. There are, however, at least two other kinds of a 

 more gregarious habit, forming groves of greater or less ex- 

 tent. The more important of these is the stately California 

 fan palm, of the botanical genus Washijigtonia named in honor 

 of our country's first and most eminent president. It is widely 

 cultivated both in southern Europe and in California where 

 avenues are often lined with it and its "fronded heads" make 

 a large element in the semi-tropic appearance of our Land of 

 Sunshine. In the desert it is found in groves about alkaline 

 springs, and is most abundant in or near the mouths of certain 

 canons of the San Jacinto mountain along the desert's west- 

 ern edge. I have seen it there close to one hundred feet high, 

 the green fan-like leaves clustered at the summit of the slender 

 trunks, which are draped with the reflexed old leaves, hang- 

 ing head downward and forming a protecting thatch or apron. 



Much less beautiful but quite as striking is appearance is 

 the grotesque Joshua tree, an arborescent yucca of the Majave 

 Desert. The Santa Fe Railroad's California line passes 

 through a scattered "forest" of these strange growths just 

 east of the San Bernardino Sierra which separates the cast 

 country from the desert. With shaggy, clumsy trunks, con- 

 torted limbs and branches terminating in bunches of stilletto- 

 like leaves bristling in all directions, they seem like trees of a 

 nightmare. The best attain a height of fifteen or twenty feet 

 and in their uncounth way are not unsymmetrical ; but gener- 

 ally the branches develop irregularly and present many fan- 

 tastic shapes, such as tridents, rude crosses, columnar clubs, or 

 writhing, upraised arms with clenched fists. 



The term Joshua tree as applied to this singular yucca. 



