IN CALIFORNIA 69 



dinary way, but prospectors tell me that after a 

 tree has fallen and lain for years until most of it 

 has crumbled away, there is a residue which is called 

 petrified yucca. It is hard and brittle, of a reddish 

 color, and will take a good polish. That has value 

 as a fuel and burns like coal. But aside from what- 

 ever practical use it may be capable of, the tree 

 yucca is one of the most striking features of our 

 desert. It is so different from other trees, so de- 

 fiant and upstanding in a land of monotonous sub- 

 serviency to sand and rocks, that I don't wonder it 

 made an impression on the old time Mormons in 

 their desert wanderings, as it did. It would seem 

 to have had a prophetic significance to some of them, 

 for they gave it in Southern Utah the name of 

 Joshua tree, as though they regarded it as the sym- 

 bol of a divinely appointed leader in the final stage 

 of some pioneering expedition, bringing them, at 

 last into their Land of Promise." 



After this dissertation I felt, tenderfoot like, that 

 I knew about all that was to be known of trees on 

 the desert; but a fresh arboreal surprise was in 

 store for me. As I sat a few days later in cheerful 

 comfort before a bright hardwood fire in the Pro- 

 fessor's bungalow in Pasadena, it occurred to me 

 to ask him where he got such fine wood it seemed 

 as hard as coal. 



