CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 31 



shrub of the canyons and ridges. Its pliant stems are 

 generally used by the Indians for making baskets. 



The wild syringa, or a small-leaved form of it, is 

 common along the canyon walls and up into the moun- 

 tains, its large, white, four-petaled flowers being as 

 fragrant as those of the cultivated variety which grows 

 in dooryards both in the east and west. In some of the 

 open caves it crowds back well into the doorways, 

 where its flowers show beautifully white against the 

 black background. 



The star leaf, Choysia dumosa, a rare desert shrub of 

 the low mountains and foothills, is a dense little ever- 

 green bush that one examines closely to see if it can be 

 a fern or club moss until its fragrant, apple-blossom 

 flowers are discovered, bedded thickly in dark green 

 leaves. It grows abundantly along the cold canyon 

 walls two miles below the great cave entrance, and still 

 more abundantly on the cool slopes of Slaughter Can- 

 yon and well back into the doorway of the Bighorn 

 Cave. Its beauty, fragrance, and rarity would seem to 

 render it worthy of cultivation, but best of all is the 

 thrill of its discovery in the wild remote places in which 

 it has made its home. 



The desert willow (Chilopis linearis), not related to 

 the willows but with some resemblance to them in its 

 slender stems, narrow leaves, and its habit of growing 

 along the bottoms of dry washes, really belongs to the 

 Bignonia or trumpet-creeper family, as is readily seen 

 from its large, white trumpet flowers and the long 

 slender pods and winged seeds. It grows to be a large 

 shrub and is generally abundant along the bottoms of 



