LILIACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 21 
First noticed by Frémont in 1844 on the Mohave Desert,' the Joshua Tree, as it was called by 
the Mormons of southern Utah, was not described until many years later. 
Railroads now cross the Mohave Desert, and from the window of his car the traveler can see the 
forests of Yucca arborescens stretching indefinitely into the hazy distance, unlike any other forest on 
the continent, and without a rival in singularity and weirdness. 
1 “We continued in a southerly direction across the plain, to Yucca trees gave a strange and singular character.” (Frémont, 
which, as well as to all the country so far as we could see, the Rep. 257.) 
