CALTROP FAMILY 



(Zygop\yllace(E) 



A family of herbs, shrubs, and trees, of wide distribution 

 in the tropics and warmer parts of the world, sparingly 

 represented on our Pacific Coast by three or four genera. 



CREOSOTE BUSH (Larrea Mexicana, Moric). Flowers soli- 

 tary, yellow, about ^ inch across, the five distinct petals dis- 

 posed to turn edgewise to the light. Leaves evergreen, of two 

 rather thick, curving, pointed leaflets, shining with a resinous 

 sort of varnish that exhales a peculiar smell, especially upon 

 burning, suggesting creosote, whence the common name of the 

 plant. It is a shrub from 3 to 10 feet high, with many gray- 

 ish stems which are banded in black and is very common in the 

 desert regions of Southern California and Arizona and south- 

 ward into Mexico, blooming off and on throughout the year. 

 Quite as noticeable as the flowers are the little round seed ves- 

 sels densely clothed with white silky hairs. 



The Creosote Bush has a medicinal reputation with the 



Indians and Mexicans, with whom it goes by the Spanish 



names hedeondilla and gobcrnadora. A tonic tea is made of the 



foliage and for saddle sores on animals a poultice of the leaves. 



10(5 



