40 
PUNCTURE WEED 
This plant, Tribulus terrestris L., which is a native 
of the Sahara Desert, was first observed in California 
near Port Los Angeles in 1903. It is now widely dis- 
tributed from Red Bluff to the Mexican border and 
promises to be one of the most pernicious weeds thus 
far introduced. It belongs to the order Zygophyllaceae 
and produces on long runners a series of burrs, which 
consist of five spiny nutlets. The spines of these nut- 
lets are long and stout enough to penetrate the tires of 
bicycles and even of automobiles when somewhat worn,- — 
W. C. Blasdale. 
BOTANIZING ABOUT SAW-TOOTH IN THE 
SOUTHERN SIERRAS 
Around Mineral King the gentians were still doing 
quite bravely and on the first flat below Saw-tooth. 
Monday we roamed about Mineral King and fished. 
Tuesday morning we took a pack-horse and went to the 
Monarch Lakes for fishing, while I made a climb to a 
near-by ridge, just to feel the rocks of the mountain 
again under my feet, and from the heights look down 
on the surrounding glories. 
Wednesday morning we started in the teeth of a 
nipping gale to climb Saw-tooth peak. The wind soon 
went down, however, and going was comfortable. Cur- 
rant bushes were the heaviest in fruit that we had yet 
seen and we passed rocky ledges where troops of prim- 
roses were clustering close, but all in seed too. 
Saw-tooth is a curious old mountain. On its north- 
east side it is cut sheer and perpendicularly down, yes, 
even under cut it seems, with the foot of this wall, 
over a thousand feet high, forming the inner edge of a 
deep green lake. We could see north as far as the 
Yosemite Peaks and as far south. Mt. Whitney was 
too close to look natural. Nestled in the scooped and 
polished basins about the foot of the mountain we 
counted eight fairly large lakes. 
At noon we hastened down the mountain, because 
the ranger at Mineral King had promised to pack us 
into the Cliff Creek country that afternoon. By five 
in the afternoon we had returned to camp and again 
were on the trail over Timber Gap. In this country 
there was less evidence of such profuse flowering as 
on the other side of the gap, but the shrubs were about 
the same. From Atwell’s Mill through Mineral King 
and up Farewell Gap way the dried plants bespoke a 
wonderfully rich spring growth in great variety. Satur- 
day arrived all too soon and the change from pack-horse 
to machine.— Harriet P. Kelley, Sept. 21, 1919. 
