148 



THE DESERT 



Salt-bush. 



The grasses. 



The lichens. 



yellow violets. Occasionally one sees the wild 

 verbena or patches of the evening primrose, or 

 up in the swales the little baby blue-eye grow- 

 ing all alone, or perhaps the yellow mimulus ; 

 but all told they do not make up a very strong 

 contingent. The salt bush that looks the color 

 of Scotch heather, out-bulks them all ; and yet 

 is not conspicuously apparent. Higher up in the 

 hills and along the mesas one often meets with 

 many strange flowers, some fiery red and some 

 with spines like the Canadian thistle ; but not 

 down in the hot valleys of the desert. 



Nor are there many grasses of consequence 

 aside from a small curled grass and the heavy 

 sacaton that grow in bunches upon isolated 

 portions of the desert. By " isolated " I mean 

 that for some unknown reason there are tracts 

 on the desert seemingly sacred to certain plants, 

 some to cholla, some to yuccas, some to grease 

 wood, some to sahuaros, some to sacaton grass. 

 It seems to be a desert oddity that the vegeta- 

 tion does not mix or mingle to any great ex- 

 tent. There are seldom more than four or five 

 kinds of growth to be found in one tract. It 

 is even noticeable in the lichens. One moun- 

 tain range will have all gray lichens on its 

 northern walls, another range will have all 



