A LAND OF DROUGHT AND DESERT 



461 



toms of some of the numerous dry drain- 

 age channels leading down from the in- 

 terior. Many small streams flow varying 

 distances, up to 10 or 15 miles, in the 

 bottoms of canyons in the high interior 

 and then sink in the bottom of the 

 washes. Some of them are large enough 

 to irrigate hundreds of acres of land and 

 support little isolated communities, as 

 those in San Ignacio, La Purisima, or 

 Comondu valleys. Owing to the cooler 

 temperatures and more regular rainfall 

 on the high mountains, there is a con- 

 siderable area of pine forest in the north 

 and a small area of scrubby oaks and 

 pines in the extreme south. 



THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY FXORA IN THE 



WORLD 



The isolation of the desert lowlands 

 of Lower California, combined with al- 

 ternations of long - continued droughts 

 and heavy rains, has resulted in the de- 

 velopment of the richest and most extra- 

 ordinary desert flora in the world, of 

 which the accompanying photographs 

 give an imperfect idea. For days our 

 trail led through a wild profusion of 

 gnarled and thorny growths made up of 

 many species. At other times the growth 

 was thinly scattered and other species 

 came in, or a forest made up almost en- 

 tirely of agaves or yuccas extended for 

 miles, to be succeeded by other combi- 

 nations. 



Although familiar with the varied 

 types of plant life, from the stunted 

 growth of Arctic tundras to the exuber- 

 ant foliage of the humid tropics, I have 

 never seen such a fantastic riot of extra- 

 ordinary forms as that afforded by the 

 flora of Lower California. The combi- 

 nations of species were often wonder- 

 fully picturesque and gave the landscape 

 an individuality unlike anything to be 

 found elsewhere. Many of these strange 

 scenes seemed fit abiding places for the 

 animal life of an earlier age rather than 

 the familiar species of today. The mid- 

 dle section of the peninsula in particular 

 appeared to be common ground for an 

 extraordinary abundance of strange des- 

 ert types of vegetation. 



The cirio (Idria columnaris) is pecu- 

 liar to this region and one of the most 

 abundant and unusual of them all. It 

 has a tall, tapering trunk 20 to 50 feet 

 high, with pale yellowish bark, many ex- 

 tremely thorny branchlets along its entire 

 length, and tufts of small yellowish flow- 

 ers on the end of long, slender stalks at 

 the extreme tip. Thin forests of these 

 pole-like trees cover hundreds of miles 

 of the interior (see pictures, pp. 444-9). 



Cactuses of many kinds abounded, 

 varying from giants standing with mass- 

 ive fluted trunks 50 to 60 feet tall to little 

 straggling-stemmed species too weak to 

 hold themselves upright. The fruit of 

 many of these cactuses are edible and 

 much sought for by birds and mammals. 

 They were once one of the main crops 

 of the Indians who lived in this arid re- 

 gion. The cactus forests often form 

 impenetrable thorny jungles through 

 which it was impossible to pass and 

 which caused long detours when we left 

 the trails. 



THE CREEPING DEVIL CACTUS 



After months among these thorny 

 plants we supposed we had seen them 

 in all their eccentric variations of form. 

 One morning, however, while crossing 

 the Llano de Yrais, in front of Magda- 

 lena Bay, I rode out from a dense growth 

 of bushes into an open area and pulled 

 up my horse in amazement at sight of 

 the most extraordinary of them all. Be- 

 fore me was a great bed of the creep- 

 ing devil cactus, which appeared like a 

 swarm of gigantic caterpillars creeping 

 in all directions. These plants actually 

 travel away from the common center of 

 the group, and I saw many single sec- 

 tions 20 to 30 yards away from the 

 others. The part of the stem resting on 

 the ground sends down rootlets and the 

 older stems die in the rear at about the 

 same rate as they grow in front, so 

 they slowly move away from the colony 

 across the flats where they live ( see pic- 

 ture, page 466). 



Another most remarkable plant is 

 the elephant wood (Veatchia discolor), 

 which, like the cirio, is confined to the 



