DESERT SCENES IN ZACATECAS 449 



Cassia wislizeni, quite common, a tall graceful bush with large panicles 

 of orange-colored flowers, a plant which might well be valued by horti- 

 culturists of the north. All through July and August these delight 

 the eye and stand out in conspicuous contrast with the surrounding 

 vegetation. Pinacate they call it, though the reason is not obvious. 

 Again if we walk out over the lower slopes not far from the banks of 

 some arroyo we may come upon the beautiful "huisache," Acacia far- 

 nesiana, in full bloom if the time is summer. This plant with its small 

 delicate leaves, its white spines, its little balls of yellow flowers scattered 

 in profusion along the younger branches, is a beauty to behold, but the 

 casual passer-by, if insensible to the beauty of the flowers, may per- 

 chance be attracted by their sweet and delicate perfume. Farther along 

 in a shallow wash where the waters occasionally take their way from the 

 higher land, appears Chilopsis saligna in slender graceful form, sway- 

 ing to every breeze. Its clusters of red flowers need not be seen to be 

 aware of their presence, for their sweet fragrance is borne on the breezes 

 far beyond that of most flowers. There are few desert flowers equally 

 conspicuous in color and perfume, and few as well supplied with either 

 as the desert willow. But where the way leads down into the bottom of 

 the arroyo, almost hidden under the overhanging bank, one comes un- 

 expectedly upon the beautiful " tronadora," to use its Spanish name. 

 Few plants of the desert are more striking in their beauty than this, 

 with its dark, deeply compound leaves and its conspicuous cluster of 

 orange-colored flowers, which reminds one in their form and attitude of 

 those of the trumpet-creeper, and well it may, for it is Tecoma stans, a 

 member of the same genus. If we thread along still further through 

 the tangle of " charnis " (Forrestiera) with its load of mistletoe, and 

 " junco " (Holacantha) and " huisache," with lacy trimmings of the 

 vine, Nissolia, where the dry stream bed is flanked by Trixis, and some- 

 times Tatalencho (Gymnosperma) on upward to where the steep banks 

 of the arroyo give way to less precipitous rocky slopes and into the 

 deeper canon beyond, Asclepias linaria springs from the sandy wash at 

 our feet with its sheaf of slender stems, each capped by its umbel of 

 white flowers. Now just to the right where a limestone cliff faces the 

 north and receives little light from the sun that scorches the ground 

 just beyond, is a patch of resurrection plants with their star-like forms 

 expanded to full view by the moisture acquired from the recent shower. 

 The day before when we passed this same way these plants had coiled 

 themselves together into compact balls and were hardly visible in the 

 crevices of the rock. But with the drenching shower came the resur- 

 rection to renewed activity. Near at hand some shrubs are covered with 

 a furry growth of grayish grassj'-looking plants, which upon nearer ap- 

 proach are seen to be a dense growth of Tillandsia recurvata, a sort of 

 Florida moss, which finds in the moister air of the canon floor or the 

 vol. lxxv. — 30. 



