° Sqs J Anthony, Birds of Sian Pernatido. L. Cal JOT 



formed in a natural cavity in the rock in a deep canon about ten 

 miles south of the mines. The natives of El Rosario, forty-five 

 miles northwest of the San Fernando mission, told me that this 

 region was visited by a copious rainfall about one year in five, 

 the other four being often without any rain whatever, a statement 

 that was borne out by the general appearance of the country, 

 which supports hardly any vegetation but the most hardy of 

 desert species. 



A short distance below El Rosario, the traveller en route to 

 San Fernando meets with the first candle-wood tree {Foiiquieria 

 cohminaris) ; these become rapidly more common until they form 

 'forests,' covering the entire country with a growth dense enough 

 to be called well timbered were the ' trees ' anything more than 

 poles. The cirio, as the Spanish call the candlewood, seldom 

 branches unless the top is broken or otherwise injured, and the 

 mature plant resembles nothing so much as a gigantic inverted 

 parsnip, often fifty or seventy-five feet in height, with a bunch of 

 yellowish blossoms at the extreme top. The trunk has a reticu- 

 lated framework for an inch or two in depth and then a soft 

 watery pith takes the place of wood. This seems to be appre- 

 ciated by the Woodpeckers, for I seldom found a dead tree that 

 did not show the marks of either Dryobates or Colaptes, nor were 

 the live cirios exempt. Almost exactly coextensive with the 

 cirio, and dividing with it the honor of a forest tree, was the 

 cardoon or giant cactus {Cerens pringlei), the largest of all the 

 cacti. This was not so abundant as the cirio, but much more 

 conspicuous owing to its larger trunks. Fine specimens on the 

 San Carlos mesa, near San Fernando, measured not less than 

 seventy feet in height, with from six to twelve branches, each 

 from twenty-four to thirty-six inches in diameter. The smaller 

 cacti were abundant, often forming thickets impassable without 

 the aid of a brush knife. On the hills near the mines were a few 

 elephant trees {Veatchia disco/or), and in a valley ten or twelve 

 miles south, they formed one of the chief features of the land- 

 scape. This botanical curiosity starts out in life with the 

 apparent intention of becoming a large, well-formed tree, but 

 after attaining a height of four to eight feet, and realizing what a 

 desolate country it is destined to live in, it seems to have become 



