CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 87 
os Santos. I stayed at Cabo 4 days, then came here by 
auto, 65 miles. Road fair but bumpy, unimproved from a wagon 
roid, much up and down and sharp curves, There is more Car- 
don as you go north, also C. Thurberi. Yucca valida Brandg. is 
more common and up to 10 ft. high, just coming into bloom. with 
panicle sessile, ovate, 1.5 ft. long though rarely 3 ft.; flowers 
e 
orm, Leaves very pungent, sharp on the edges (minutely-serrate) 
and without threals mostly, thin. { to one sixteenth inch thick, 
rather flabby, quite concave and erect, reflexed in age, narrowed 
above the insertion, taper-pointed, blue, with black-spiny tips. 
The mango is ovate and with oblique termination, smooth and 
shining, about 4 inches long, with yellow and very juicy pulp and 
not so stringy as usual. It hangs in small bunches from the ends 
uf twigs. The avocado is gourd-shaped, and shining, not warty 
like ours, and hangs from a long peduncle, and when ripe is soft 
and easily eaten with a spoon, and not so utterly worthless as the 
and green ones we are accustomed to at home. 
Todos Santos. My object here was to ascend the very difll- 
cult Laguna mts. from the western and easier side and collect the 
W. Pickett who was running a gold mine at Pescadero, a few 
miles away, to recommend a suitable outfit, giving him full author- 
ity to secure it, He sent Alvarado, his wood foreman, an old man 
of fifty.years,.a very capable person:who did. not -know the trails 
