THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 73 



roof were a number of swallow nests whose owners flew over 

 the table on their trips throug-h the door. 



Early in the morning- we hitched up a span of little, wiry 

 mules and started for Rancheria Mountain, some 10 miles 

 away. The first 5 miles was across about as dry a region as 

 one could expect to see, nothing green in sight except the scat- 

 tered plants of the pretty Jatropha macrorhiaa, which the Mexi- 

 cans call " Jicamilla" this name being- given for its resemblance 

 ' to "Jicama" a species which is a common food product among 

 them. Tlie plants were in flower and presented a very attrac- 

 tive appearance, everything else being brown and parched, 

 since there had been no rain for about a year. We began to 

 dig out the root, which was of about three pounds weight, and 

 was located about 8 inches beneath the surface of the soil. It 

 was no easy matter to get it out. A very good description of 

 this plant is found in "Botany of West Texas," in Vol 2 "Con- 

 tributions to the National Herbarium." 



Passing on a little distance we saw flowers of a pretty 

 yellow color, standing up, several inches above the prostrate 

 plants. This is what is locally called "Melon del Coyote" and is 

 Apondanthera iindidata also described in the Botany of West 

 Texas. It has a perennial root of a russet brown color on the 

 surface, which is also located deep in the hard, dry soil. From 

 the summit, there grows a stem of the same scaly brown color 

 and when it reaches the surface of the ground, the regular 

 green stems grow out, branching very freely in all directions. 

 The male flowers are in thick, erect racemose corymbs, and 

 from the axils of the lower leaves while the female flowers are 

 solitary in the upper axils. There may be 10 or 15 bright yel- 

 low male flowers in each raceme, and when they are all open in 

 the morning they present a most attractive sight. The fruit is 

 round, reddish yellow and 7 to 10 centimeters in diameter. 



Going up into the foothills of the mountain we came upon 

 Maximozvicda tripartita, Var. tcuuisecta, this plant has a 

 brownish, scaly and conical root, weighing several pounds. 



