40 
THE SCIEXTIST 
cacU has saved many from peridbing of 
lliirst. 
Another intei'estiDg cactus is called the 
cane cactus because "teiiderfeet" collect 
so many to take east to be used for canes 
or walking sticks. The natives call this 
species ocotille (pronounc^^d o-ko-tee yi. ). 
Its blooms are a beautiful flamingo red. 
They appear in all their glory fi'om the 
middle of January till the middle of 
February. Tlie blooms come out at the 
lops of the plants which are usually 
from eight to eighteen feet till. The 
flov^ers remind me somewhat of those of 
the magnolia, but they a,re only about 
oue-third to one-half so large. 
Another interesting species is the 
nigbt-bloomicg cereus — cactus cereus. I 
saw a few specimens on the Rio del Rey 
in Sonoia, last August, but they were 
not in bloom. 
The prickly pear— a species of opun- 
tia— is sometimes ])lanted in the south- 
west for a hedge. At San Pedro, Mis- 
sioi}, in southern California, is such a 
hedge. It is claimed that it is 171 years 
old. Some of its leaves are eleven feet 
in diameter and from four to six inches 
thick, 
OiAC reason why the cottonwoods of 
the southwest are so small is because 
they grow along the low valleys where 
the channels of the streams are almost 
constantly changing from bluff to bluff. 
The current seldom gives them more 
than four or five years in which to grow, 
consequently, they are never large. 
In Colorado, the cottonwoods, as I 
observed in Notes No. 1, are mostly nar- 
row leafed, and are much like the "quak- 
ing asps" or aspens. In the southwest, 
the cottonwoods are much like those 
seen along the Kaw or Missouri rivers. 
The palo verde is a strange tree. It 
looks somewhat like the box-elder — the 
A^r w-guadr). Its twigs and small 
branches are always a bright green. At 
a distance, this tree ix'senibles a ced ir or 
juniper. The natives cl iim that ' it 
never blooms, never puts out any leaves, 
yet it is always green." Bat Mi-. Law- 
rence, of the Journa/, and myself found 
a tree of this species in leaf in Jjmuary, 
1889. It was in Redbank Arroyo, San 
•Pablo Mountains, about fifteen miles 
above the month of the Gila river. The 
tree was about 14 inches in diameter. 
Its leaves were about as large as wheat 
grains and shaped much like the ears of 
mice. I have never seen this interesting 
tree in bloom. 
There are four different species of 
plant in the southwest that are called 
sagebrush. Two of these undoubtedly 
belong to the artcmesla or sage brush 
proper. The other two are entirely dif- 
ferent. One of these last is the "bioom 
sage." . It looks, when in bloom, some- 
what like the golden rod. But its stalks 
are much smaller and they, grow in 
clumps of from tliirty to sixty from one 
root. 
The remaining species is seldom above 
twenty inches in height. It has latge, 
white, sessile leaves and, if I remember 
correctly, fluted stalks. At a distance of 
a few rods, it resembles the ice plant. 
The so-called iron-wood, already men- 
tioned, is a fine tree. It is claimed that 
for fuel this wood is equal to good soft 
coal, bulk for bulk. It does not seem 
to be right to burn it for fuel. It is 
dense and fine grained. It is probably a 
species of mahogany, and would, no 
doubt, make a fine cabinet wood. 
I have never had a manual of botan}^ 
with me in the southwest. I mean to 
classify some of these strange plants as 
soon as I can and give the result to the 
Academy . 
The timber of the southwest is princi- 
pally in the Mogollon, Black, Chirihua- 
hua, San Nazareno and M-^gdaleno 
mountains. 
