32 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



bright yellow blossoms hang in long clusters all over the tree and are 

 much visited by bees. The leaves are small, awlshaped bodies, almost 

 invisible ; the branches probably contain the stomata as do the trunks of 

 the cacti. The "ochotilla" (Fouquiera spinosd] is one of the most 

 remarkable of desert plants. The trunk is very short and branches 

 into a number of long, whip-like shoots covered with curved spines, 

 an inch or so long. The flowers are bright red, forming clusters at 

 the end of the shoots, and succeeded by oblong capsules filled with 

 minute seeds. 1 These plants, with stunted greasewood and sage 

 bushes, as well as the different varieties of opuntia and echinocactus, 

 are among the very common and most striking plants of the desert. 

 In the spring a few pretty annuals appear, some bearing beautiful 

 flowers. The dry mountain sides and the canons above the desert 

 enrich the Indians' ethno-botany with many species of plants which 

 we will notice later. 



But the most striking botanical feature of the desert is its canons of 

 palms. The best known of these are at the southern end of Palm 

 Valley. Here two long rocky canons are filled for miles with these 

 beautiful trees. Many of them rise forty feet high covered with the 

 persistent bases and sheathes of dead leaves, while at the top they are 

 crowned with long, graceful fronds. These tops droop closely together, 

 filling the narrow canon from side to side and affording a grateful 

 shade. The approach to these spots is sudden and the sight most 

 unexpected and amazing. Such luxuriant, tropical vegetation would 

 never be looked for in the midst of such sterile surroundings. The 

 pools of water impounded in the bottoms of the canons explain their 

 presence. Many strange theories have been evoked to account for the 

 existence here of these stately trees. It has even been stated that they 

 have sprung from seed dropped by the thoughtful Franciscan friars, 

 who were supposed to have journeyed through here, but the plant is 

 an indigenous one, the Washingtonia filifera, and the same species, as 

 well as another, are to be found in the Cocopah and Sierra Madre 

 mountains of Lower California, Guadaloupe island, and the Mexican 

 mainland. 



15. The villages or rancherias of the Coahuillas, at the present 

 time, are as follows. Their last villages in the San Bernadino and San 

 Jose valleys were broken up thirty years or so ago, and, although they 

 still come to the vicinity of Redlands and Riverside in search of work, 

 their camps in these places are no longer permanent homes. They 



i J. F. JAMES, "The Colorado Desert," Popular Science Monthly, 1881, Vol. XX, p. 384. 



