“yon, some miles to ‘ie west. Its broad, thin leaves 
green, presenting an agreeable contrast to the s 
cramped desert vegetation. The trees were well 1c 
-plum-like fruit, nearly ripe. The drupes are pulple 
hard, thick putamen; there is no albumen, and the co 
are thin, foliaceous and green. It is a structure well adapt 
protect the seed from the attacks of rodents, who would 
how slender was the reward for gnawing thro the hard shell; but 
it must be difficult for such a seed to earn under the arid Es 
conditions of its habitat. — Stats nS a 
If trees are few, both in numbers ary in ial atintitilg are 
numerous and multifarious. Dadlea californica and D. Schotti r | 
hung out their purple racemes, and the entangled branches of __ 
the misnamed Krameria parviflora were almost hidden with 
flowers of a darker shade of the same color. Deloperone califor- 
nica was loaded with its blossoms of dull red, a color seldom dis- 
played by the plants of the desert. The ill-smelling /someras 
arborea was well set with fruit. There is a considerable differ- 
ence in the pods of this shrub. That which is usually consid- 
ered as typical, and which is abundant on both the Colorado and 
Mojave desert, has an inflated oblong fruit, acute at the apex. 
The variety globosa, which I have never found in the desert, but 
which is common on the sea coast of San Diego county, has an 
inflated globose fruit. A third form, occasionally seen: about 
Palm Springs and Whitewater, has a narrow uninflated fruit, and 
may be called var. angustata.* 
As everywhere in the desert, at similar alta the Lareed 
bushes were a marked feature of the landscape. Many other 
rugged shrubs, including several species of Opuntza, contributed 
to its rough ‘and forbidding aspect. About them the desert 
winds ‘had heaped fine sand, in which often they were half bur- 
ied; and growing in this were to be found Dithyrea californica, 
several species of Oenothera, and other annuals. So far indeed 
_ is the desert from being a. vegetationless waste, that few are the 
‘spots so dry, SO > barren, that there some plant. does not manage 
oe exist. 
Py eS 1s aa SE Nutt. var. ‘anguntara. Fruit narrow Ait oblong ,4cm. long, 
§mm., thick, 3-5-seeded, uninflated and conformed to the seed. 
