200 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



large enough for telegraph poles. On the day 

 before, my first day in the city, I had turned a 

 field-glass in this direction, and to my surprise 

 had seen the hills covered with verdure. " Why," 

 said I, noticing what I took for the trunks of 

 trees amid the green, " those hills are forested." 

 Now I discovered that the greenness was mostly 

 that of the desert-loving creosote bush (a low 

 shrub, noticeable for being thornless, which 

 covers thousands on thousands of acres here- 

 abouts, and just now is putting forth small yellow 

 blossoms), while the boles of trees were nothing 

 but giant cacti. 



Among the stones at my feet grew flowers of 

 various unknown sorts, especially a large yellow 

 one, apparently an evening primrose, rising no 

 more than two inches from the ground, with a 

 tuft of leaves at the base of the stem, or rather 

 at the bottom of the calyx. The only flower of 

 them all that I could certainly name was a pretty 

 blue lupine, smaller than our New England 

 species, both in blossom and leaf, but so exactly 

 like it in other respects that for old acquaint- 

 ance' sake, though the lupine was never one of 

 my particular favorites, I plucked it for my but- 

 tonhole. I believe it is the only natural-looking, 

 familiar-looking wild plant that I have so far 

 seen in this desert country. 



