28 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



in great bouquets of buttercup-like flowers, often 

 spreading a golden robe for miles over the valley 

 country and filling the air with a pungent fragrance, not 

 from the flowers so much as from the fresh varnish on 

 the young leaves and twigs. 



The bean family (Leguminosae) is represented by 

 such desert trees as the mesquite, but more abundantly 

 by numerous desert shrubs, one of the commonest of 

 which is the slender Acacia constricta, with delicate, 

 compound leaves, and straight, slender spines. In 

 flowering time it is covered with little golden balls of 

 stamens and later the slender mottled bean pods dangle 

 in profusion. For most of the year its naked branches 

 and keen pointed thorns stand repellent and apparently 

 lifeless. 



Another common little bean bush with small, com- 

 pound leaves and fragrant pink flowers will be recog- 

 nized as the catsclaw (Mimosa biuncifera) as soon as 

 one comes in contact with it and has to back out pain- 

 fully to escape the numerous pairs of stout hooks which 

 protect its branches. This is the most vicious of the 

 several spiny bean bushes of the region, and well im- 

 mune to the attacks of hungry ruminants. 



A large evergreen and spineless shrub of the same 

 family is the goat bean, or coral bean bush, found along 

 the canyons and cliffs and in the mouths of caves. In 

 April it sends out great bunches of dark blue, wisteria- 

 like flowers among the dark green leaves, and later 

 thick bulging pods of large coral-red beans, which have 

 the reputation of being poisonous to goats if masticated 

 when eaten. When swallowed whole, as they generally 



