86 MISC. PUBLICATION 101, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
high, with numerous green, angled, straight, erect, elongated, broom- 
like stems. The species is a native of Europe now adventive or 
naturalized in eastern North America from Nova Scotia southward 
in the coastal plains region, at least as far as Delaware and Virginia 
and on the Pacific slope as well, ranging from Vancouver Island 
and western Washington south to California, chiefly along or near 
the ocean. Its American range is undoubtedly spreading, and in 
many places it is now abundant, growing on barren and other waste 
places, sandy plains and dunes, at low elevations. 
though somewhat valued abroad for tedder, Scotch broom is 
seldom touched by grazing animals on western ranges. It is un- 
doubtedly somewhat poisonous to livestock when in the growing 
state, the symptoms being slavering, vomiting, staggering, and gen- 
eral paralysis (17, 95). A volatile alkaloid spartein (C,;H..N.) ana 
the toxic alkaloid cytisin (C,,H,,N,O) produce a narcotic effect in 
the poisoned animal, with paralysis of the central nervous system. 
Scotch broom has been freely recommended as a soil renovator for 
barren lands because of the large amount of potash contained in 
the ash. 
Western coralbean (L'rythrina flabelliformis), often called chili- 
cote by Mexicans and ranchers, is the only species of the large tropical- 
subtropical coraltree genus (Erythrina) occurring in the West. This 
showy-flowered shrub grows on dry foothills and plains of southern 
Arizona and New Mexico and south into Mexico. In some places it 
is abundant and its large, thickish, beanlike leaves furnish cattle 
browse of low palatability, at least in winter and early spring. The 
handsome, dark-red seed, the bark, and prickly stems are more or 
less poisonous (726), but it is very doubtful that the species would 
cause livestock losses except on grossly overgrazed range. 
Kidneywood (Lysenhardtia polystachya) 2 famous because of the 
fluorescent properties of its wood (108), 1s a bush or small tree, 4 to 
25 feet high, and is found in southern and western Texas, southern 
Arizona, and south into Mexico. It occurs on dry plains and foot- 
hills, commonly in gravelly rocky sites, and is especially charac- 
teristic of barrancas and canyons. 
Kidneywood is a species that deserves careful study on ranges 
where it occurs. Its glandular-punctate character (as well as its 
close relationship to Amorpha and Parosela) suggests active chemi- 
cal properties. However, it is considered good or very good goat 
browse, and in southeastern Arizona is reported abundant though 
local, and as constituting one of the best summer and fall browses 
of the region, eaten by horses and relished by cattle from May to 
November. 
Tesota (Olneya tesota) is variously known as arbol (or palo) de 
hierro, and desert (Mexican, or Sonora) ironwood. Ironwood, and 
20 The species has no well-established English name, ‘‘ kidneywood,”’ a translation of the 
sixteenth century Latin name for the plant (lignum nephriticum), being here suggested as 
apropos. The Aztecs knew the plant as coatl(i) and tlapalezpatli. lt is frequently 
called mountain locust in Arizona, evidently being mistaken for a Robinia. The synonymy 
is involved, and the plant appears in our manuals and literature under at least 11 different 
names, the commonest including Viborquia orthocarpa, V. polystachya, Eysenhardtia amor- 
phoides, and #. orthocarpa. The whole group of forms seems to intergrade to such an 
extent that the tendency among more conservative botanists is to regard them as com- 
prising one variable polymorphic species, 
