PLANTS FROM BAJA CALIFORNIA. 119 



is Ipomcea Jicama, a woody species climbing about other 

 plants, and rarelj producing large white flowers. Its roots 

 l)ear tubers that are much sought for on account of their 

 £ue flavor and watery juice. One weighing six pounds is 

 said to have been found, and traditions of a ten-pounder are 

 -extant, but the largest seen weighed two or three pounds, 

 and they are usually much smaller. These tubers must 

 grow^ very fast during the rainy and Spring season, for their 

 location, often three feet or more from the base of the stems, 

 is discovered by the growth cracking the soil. New stems 

 never spring from them, and their use to the parent plant is 

 uncertain. Perhaps it is to store up moisture to be drawn 

 upon during the dry season. These round tubers or " jica- 

 mas" are always eaten raw, and resemble in taste a very 

 tender turnip somewhat sweetened. Wherever the plant 

 grows near habitations or along trails, numerous little holes 

 may be seen around the plant at distances varying from two 

 to four feet, showing the places from which the tubers have 

 been dug. 



From San Gregorio, with a Mexican guide and three 

 mules, a trip was made to Purisima, an old mission, having 

 now a population of two or three hundred persons living 

 along the small stream that irrigates their vineyards, fig 

 and orange trees. On leaving the sea coast new plants ap- 

 pear within a few miles; among the first is ^'Pitahaya dulce," 

 a species of cactus producing edible fruit, and soon Dr. 

 Kellogg' s large yellow-flowered Ipomsea (/. aurea) is seen 

 in abundance, climbing over the leguminous bushes. After 

 two or three days spent in collecting about Purisima, the 

 trip was continued up the canon and around over the high 

 mesas, black with volcanic rock, and down into the canon 

 of Comondu. The most conspicuous plant of these high 

 mesas, at that time of the year, was an Agave about ten feet 

 high, with long radical leaves and a panicle of half a thous- 

 and dark yellow flowers. Comondu is a settlement nine 

 miles in length along a little brook in a narrow caiion, three 



