TO COACHELLA VALLEY 115 



mixed with some of larger size — relics of the brack- 

 ish lake that for a long period filled this great de- 

 pression. By some error the name got upon the maps 

 as Coachella, and the blunder has been retained, 

 until it is now signed and sealed beyond hope of 

 correction. 



A botanical feature hereabouts was the smoke- 

 tree, Parosela spinosa, which appeared in great num- 

 bers. It is the most prominent plant of the dry 

 desert water-courses, and in some of them grows so 

 thickly as to form an apology for a forest, though a 

 forest of strange kind and serpentine form. It was 

 at this time in full bloom, carrying a multitude of 

 small, pea-like blossoms of dark, bright blue, from 

 which the plant is sometimes called "indigo-bush." 

 I have heard it called "desert cedar " also, though it 

 would be hard to imagine anything less like the 

 sumptuous cedar than this spectral thing, blanched 

 and leafless. The other name, smoke-tree, describes 

 it well (though it is more bush than tree, seldom over 

 twelve feet in height), for the resemblance to a col- 

 umn of smoke is plain enough at a little distance. 

 At this season it made a beautiful sight in its dress 

 of gray and blue. Each plant was humming with 

 wild bees and other insects that were making the 

 most of the honey harvest, and the fallen blossoms 

 had gathered in every hollow like drifts of blue 

 snow. 



A few miles brought us to the edge of cultivation. 

 A small farm appeared, isolated in the waste, but 

 looking thrifty and attractive. Glad of a chance to 

 exchange words with my kind, sure to be interesting 



