36 THE SEKI INDIANS [eth. ann, 17 



time of need, aud it yields abundant seeds, consumed by birds, small 

 animals, and men. About all of the permanent waters not iuvaded by 

 wlnte men and the white man's stoek there are brakes of cane or car- 

 rizal {l'hra<imiies communis ?); the jointed stems are half an inch to 

 an inch in thickness and S to 25 feet in height; the seeds are edible, 

 while the stems form the material for balsas and afford shafts for arrows, 

 harpoons, flre-sticks, etc., and the silica-coated Joints may be used for 

 incising tough tissues. 



The coasts of Serilaud, both insular and mainland, are skirted by 

 zones of exceptionally luxuriant shrubbery, maintained chiefly by fog 

 moisture. Along the mountainous parts of the coast the zone is nar- 

 row and indetinite, but on the plains portions it extends inland for sev- 

 eral miles with gradually fading characters; this is especially true in 

 the southern portion of Desierto Encinas, where the fog effects maybe 

 observed in the vegetation lH or \i> miles from the coast. Most of the 

 fog fed species are identical with those of the interior, though the 

 shrubs are more luxuriant and are otherwise distinctive in habit. On 

 the Tiburon side of gale swept EI Inliernillo, and to some extent along 

 other i)arts of the coast, some of these shrubs (notably Maytentis phyl- 

 lanthroides) grow in dense hedge-like or mat-like masses, often yards 

 in extent and i)ermanently modeled by the wind in graceful dune like 

 shapes. Somewhat farther inland the flatter coastwise zones of Tiburon 

 are rather thickly studded with shrubby clumps from 6 inches to 2 feet 

 high, made up of Frankenia palmeri with half a dozen minor com- 

 nuuials; while still farther inland follows the prevailing Sonoran 

 flora of mes(iuite, scrubby paloverde, and chaparral (Celtin pallida), 

 etc, only a little more luxuriant than the normal. 



Throughout Serilaud proper, and especially in the interior valleys of 

 Tiburon, grasses are more prevalent than in other portions of the 

 Sonoran province, their abundance doubtless being due to the rarity of 

 graminiverous animals during recent centuries. 



Fauna 



Considered collectively, the fauna of the Sonoran province is meas- 

 urably distinctive (though less so than the flora), especially in the habits 

 of the organisms. The prevailing animals, like the plants of extrane- 

 ous type, evidently represent genera and species developed under more 

 humid conditions aud adjusted to the arid ])rovince through a long- 

 continued and severe process of adaptation; and no fundamentally 

 distinct orders or types comparable with the cacti and torotes of the 

 vegetal realm are known. Tlie prime requisite of animal life in the 

 province is ability to dispense with drinking, either habitually or for 

 long intervals, and to maintain structure and function in the heated 

 air despite the exceptionally small consumption of water; the second 

 requisite is ability to cooperate in the luarvelously complete solidarity 

 of animal and vegetal life characteristic of subdesert regions. No 



