102 EESOIJRCES OF CALIFOENIA. 



from two to six, which are about half the thickness of the 

 trunk ; they run out horizontally for a foot or two, and then 

 turn upward and rise parallel with the trunk. There are no 

 twigs or leaves, but flowers and fruit grow on the tops of the 

 trunk and branches. The whole plant resembles a huge can- 

 delabrum. The flowers are three inches long, as wide, with 

 stiff, curling,' and cream-colored petals. The fruit is as large 

 as a hen's egg^ and the meat is a red pulp, full of little seeds. 

 The taste is insipid ; but when the fruit is dried, according to 

 the Indian custom, it acquires a flavor somewhat like that of 

 afig. , 



§ 80. Yucca. — The yucca, or bayonet-tree, is a kind of palm, 

 — an endogenous tree that lives in the southern deserts. It 

 sometimes grows to be thirty-five feet in height, with a trunk 

 two feet through ; but usually it is about ten feet high, with a 

 trunk eight inches in diameter. It has no twigs or branches, 

 but sometimes it divides into two trunks. The foliage, con- 

 sisting of leaves eighteen inches long, and shaped like the 

 blade of a bayonet, hangs down from the tops of the trunks. 



§ 81. llezquit. — The mezquit {Algarohia glandidosa) is a 

 low tree of the Colorado Desert. It sometimes reaches a 

 height of twenty feet, with a trunk fifteen inches in diameter. 

 The lower branches are very near the ground, and the whole 

 tree has a very regular, semispherical form. The leaves are 

 like those of the black locust, and the foliage thin. The tree 

 bears numerous pods, from three to five inches long, full of 

 sweet, nourishing beans, about the size of the common white 

 bean. The mezquit-bean is often eaten by men, and horses 

 and mules are very fond of it. 



The curly mezquit {Stromhocarpus puhescens) is a similar 

 shrub, and bears a crooked bean, called the " screw-bean." It 

 also grows only on the desert. 



§ 82. Miscellaneous Trees and Shrubs. — A few walnut-trees 

 crow alono- the Sacramciito Iliver, and it is said that some 

 chestnuts have been found in Mendocino county, but they are 

 unknown in the greater part of the state. We have no indi- 



