18 



The Plant World. 



(4). Inter- and intra- specific crosses of tomatoes gave similar 

 results in the hybrids. Such characters as were noted for L. 

 pirn pinelli folium behaved in exactly the same manner as those 

 derived from the various varieties of L. esculentum. 



CULTIVATED PLANTS IN THE ARID SOUTHWEST. 

 By V. M. Spalding. 



To one who is spending a summer in the desert country of 

 the southwestern United States the behavior of introduced and 

 cultivated plants is an instructive study. One finds in the cities 

 of Arizona that a large share of the trees and shrubs that have 

 been long in cultivation are those that are known to do well in 

 warm climates more or less subject to drouth. The commonest 

 shade tree perhaps is the Pride of India (Melia Azederach) ; pepper 

 trees (Schinus molle) are frequently planted, and there are palms, 

 oleanders, pomegranates, mulberries, olives, and figs, all of them, 

 when cared for, growing as luxuriantly as the plants of a tropical 

 garden. With them one sees occasional representatives of the 

 desert flora of the region, specimens of cacti, the ocotillo or 

 candlewood, the palo verde and others, that have been brought 

 in from the neighboring hills, responding quickly to the care they 

 receive, but adding a touch of asperity to a landscape already 

 somewhat severe; for these plants, nearly all of them hard leaved, 

 or otherwise adapted to the desert, suggest a struggle with ad- 

 verse conditions, to which their interesting but not always 

 attractive features correspond. All told, the introduced vege- 

 tation is what the early explorers and their followers, who had 

 the first hand in its introduction, would expect to fit such an 

 environment, and which, as a matter of fact, has flourished here 

 down to the present time and is still largely chosen for planting 

 in grounds and along roadsides. 



In later years, however, a softening effect has been sought 

 and obtained by introducing plants of widely different character- 

 istics, and it is especially the deportment of these, in a region 

 naturally uncongenial, that affords an opportunity for both 

 interesting and profitable observation. In Tucson five years 

 ago the Virginia creeper was seen only here and there, but it has 

 been passed along in the form of cuttings from house to house 

 until walls, fences, and houses are everywhere covered with its 



