DESERTS AND DESERT FLORA OF THE WEST 

 flowering willow, and on the rocky mountain slopes 

 the curious bisnagas (Echinocactus cylindraceus), 

 known as the vegetable water-barrel of the desert. 



In season one may see the sands carpeted with 

 massed colonies of brilliant abronias and gilias, or 

 dotted with numerous rounded mats of the beauti- 

 ful little desert aster (Eremiastrum bellioides). A 

 diminutive poppy (Eschscholtzia minuti flora), with 

 flowers about one-tenth the size of the common 

 coastal species, is scattered among the bushes. Late 

 afternoon the evening primrose opens its delicate 

 pink and w r hite flowers which are often two inches 

 across. 



The traveler who knows these western deserts 

 only from the car window and associated only with 

 alkali dust and desert heat will find it difficult to 

 come upon any understanding of the strange fasci- 

 nation of this land of little rain. To feel their 

 charm, one must move out into their open spaces; 

 become a part of their boundless silence; face their 

 trackless sands and bare mountain reaches in the 

 wonderful opalescent light of sunsets and sun- 

 rises; gain an insight into the significance of the 

 curious adaptations of plant and animal life, and 

 of the page of earth's physical history laid bare in 

 their reft gorges. 



REFERENCES 



ABRAMS, L. R. 



1910. A phytogeographic and taxonomic study of the south- 

 ern California trees and shrubs. N. Y. Botan. 

 Garden Bull. 6, pp. 300-485, pis. (Contains keys 

 and distributional notes for the species of the 

 Mohave and Colorado deserts.) 

 AUSTIN, MARY. 



1904. The land of little rain. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 



N. Y.), PP. xi+280, illus. 

 HALL, H. M. 



1907. Compositae of southern California. Univ. Calif. Publ. 

 Bot., vol. 3, pp. 1-302, 3 pis., map. (Contains keys 

 and descriptions for the species of the Mohave and 

 Colorado deserts.) 

 MACDOUGAL, D. T., and others. 



1914. The Salton Sea. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 Publ. 193, pp. xi-f 182, maps, iilus. (A study of the 

 geography, geology and botany of Salton Basin.) 

 SPALDING, V. M. 



1909. Distribution and movements of desert plants. Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington, Publ. 113, pp. 

 v+144, pis., maps, diagrams, illus. (Contains an 

 excellent account of the vegetation of the Tucson 

 region.) 

 VAN DYKE, J. C. 



1901. The desert. (Charles Scribner's Sons, N. Y.), pp. 

 xix+233, illus. 



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