76 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



est indigo blue. You never doubt miracles after 

 once seeing that such gorgeousness of flowering on 

 dry sticks rooted in sand. ' ' 



"I'd call that blue an ultramarine," said Eytel 

 who had the artist's sensitiveness to color. 



Of all the desert trees, however, by far the most 

 important, and the one we saw most of, is the mes- 

 quit (Prosopis juliflora) which in one form or an- 

 other is found from Utah to Texas and from the 

 southern California deserts to Mexico. It is in an 

 especial sense the desert's own tree, and rooted 

 sometimes as much as sixty feet below ground, it 

 defies drought and wind as no other tree can. As 

 the storms pile the sand around its short, twisting 

 trunks and wide-spread, thorny branches, it heaves 

 itself continually like the indomitable fighter that it 

 is above the smother of grit and gravel, until in the 

 case of old individuals there is vastly more tree un- 

 derground than above. These sand hummocks, mes- 

 quit-crowned monies as they are sometimes 

 called are among the characteristic features of the 

 Colorado desert. The tree is deciduous, and when 

 it wakens from its winter of inactivity, the new 

 born, feathery foliage spreads a sheet of tender 

 flavescent green on desert plains and in canon 

 mouths, and the wild bee knows his harvest is at 

 hand. Following the first leaves, myriads of cat- 



