i 
790 Botanizing on the Colorado Desert.  [November, 
area now a desert. The road here descends to the dry bed of 
the extinct river, and follows it directly to the plain. The grade 
is easy but the loose white sand is deep, and in this sandy rock- 
. walled passage I met two Indians, a man and woman, whose 
decrepid forms, withered features and whitened hair made them 
look almost prehistoric, toiling upward on foot, each with a heavy 
pack of blankets and pottery on their backs, while a few rods 
behind them a stalwart youth of about thirty years rode in 
serenest laziness a half-starved looking pony. It was probably 
another party of herborizers this, on their way up to the rocky 
heights where the wild maguey plants grow, to feast on the ten- 
derly springing flower-stalks, and make mezcal. 
February days in this region are nearly as warm as days of 
July in-New England, and as I walked along the south wall of 
the cafion, gratefully sheltered from the heat of the morning sun, 
I easily comprehended the origin of that oriental phrase: “ The 
shadow of a great rock ina weary land.” Here at my feet, where 
the sand was shaded, grew and bloomed a low spreading variety 
of evening primrose (CEnothera), with large, pale yellow flowers. 
On the opposite side, more exposed to the sun, the whole base 
line of the rising cliffs was ornamented with a continuous hedge- 
row of a very handsome shrub (Hyptis albida H. B. K.) with 
whitish foliage, its branchlets ending in slender spikes of fine, 
deep purple flowers. The desert shrubs, however brilliant their 
flowers may be, are usually without much show of foliage, most 
of them bearing spines or briers instead of leaves. 
But besides this pretty, white-leaved Hyptis, I noticed one 
other exception to that rule in the case of a smaller bush ( Beloper- 
one californica Gray), the stems of which were buried half their 
length in the drifting sands, and whose salvia-like spikes of scar- 
=~ let flowers were subtended by neat foliage of a bright shining 
* green. From admiring these first beauties of the desert, MY 
attention was next drawn to a tuft of tall, slender, reed-like stems 
_ with pale-green bark which, though appearing wholly leafless, 
_ produced at their summits several pendant clusters of white 
_ flowers. At a few rods distance one would never have guessed 
this graceful plant to be a near relative of the stout coarse leaved — 
_ silk-weed of Eastern fields and waysides; but a glance at the 
structure of the flower showed the plant to be a genuine Ascle- 
pias ( A. subulata Dec.). The stems, though altogether smooth 
