TREES AND TREE-LIKE GROWTHS 49 



the great quantity of mistletoe, Phoradendron cal- 

 if ornicum, they often carry. It is a common thing 

 to see mesquits in which one half of the bulk of the 

 tree is made up of dense masses of this parasite. It 

 has no leaves, but in spring carries berries of a pretty 

 coral color. Though classed by botanists as a " false " 

 mistletoe, it has, I know, played the good old Christ- 

 mas part with entire success. 



In speaking of the ironwood as the last true tree 

 of the desert, I must not overlook three other plants 

 that in size may deserve the name — the tree-yucca 

 or Joshua tree, the ocotillo or candlewood, and that 

 giant of the cacti the saguaro. They are hardly to be 

 thought of as trees, however, but rather as growths 

 allied to trees, but wanting in almost all tree-like 

 features. 



The first is Yucca arborescens, of the tribe of that 

 "Spanish bayonet" which is so common about the 

 foothills of Southern California and so noticeable 

 for its gigantic spike of cream-colored flowers. The 

 Joshua tree (so named, it is said, by Mormon immi- 

 grants who, meeting these eccentric growths as they 

 neared the end of their long march, hailed them as 

 heralds of the promised land) is more typical of the 

 Mojave than of the Colorado Desert, but it extends 

 southward into the mountain ranges that divide the 

 twin desolations. 



It is a weird, menacing object, more like some 

 conception of Poe's or Dore's than any work of 

 wholesome Mother Nature. One can scarcely find 

 a term of ugliness that is not apt for this plant. A 

 misshapen pirate with belt, boots, hands, and teeth 



