1878.] Rambles of a Botanist in New Mexico. 211 
drooping boughs, it is well enough named desert willow, though 
it belongs technically to a very different order of trees. The 
_catalpa of the south-east is its nearest ally. The flowers of the 
two trees are much alike in form and size, but those of Chilopsis 
are bright deep pink color with purple markings; and clustered 
among the. willow-like foliage on branches that droop and sway 
with every breeze, they place the species far superior to the 
catalpa in point of grace and beauty. We hardly meet with it in 
our mountain saunterings, nor even along the banks of the Rio 
Mimbres, which pretty stream, flowing along the eastern base of 
the Santa Ritas, takes its Spanish name from the real willows 
which overshadow its clear and rippling waters. Only beyond 
the mountains on the sandy plains, though indeed in the lowest 
parts of them, along channeled sands where water sometimes 
flows after a heavy shower, do we find the shade of the branches 
and inhale the pleasant fragrance of the flowers of the desert 
willow. One cactus of the plains, which attains the dimensions 
of a small tree (Opuntia arborescens Engelm.), maintains a foot- 
hold among the rocks in the cooler, fresher region of the moun- 
tains, and in spite of its defiant aspect, armed thickly as it is with 
stout needle-pointed spines, it is a splendid object late in June 
= when every branch bears at its apex a cluster of very large bril- 
liant magenta blossoms. Another of a different genus (Cereus 
=~ fendleri Engelm.), is a humbler tenant of the rocks, with still more 
beautiful flowers. Of the two species of Yucca noticed, one ( Yucca 
angustifolia Pursh) merits the name of a true lily, growing as it does 
_ to the height of twelve or fifteen feet, the large panicles of nodding 
white lily-like flowers sometimes of themselves measuring six feet 
. long. It is a majestic plant when in bloom, though less to be 
= admired at other seasons, when it displays a mere branchless 
trunk terminating in a single tuft of long narrow leaves. In this 
last-named condition a group of yuccas seen at a distance on the 
plains has a singular likeness of a band of long-haired south- 
western savages, and has often been at first sight mistaken for 
such by travelers newly coming into these sub-tropical regions. 
The other member of this genus (Y. daccata Torr.) is of humbler 
growth, and its flowers are succeeded by edible fruits looking a 
little like bananas and having the flavor of paspa, together 
with slightly cathartic properties. 
a Teg one day in an eastern neoe a notice that a century 
Gre aa aAa et 
4 Se ie TEES 2 viet eas Sa Se Sores 
