Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/453

Cassia wislizeni, quite common, a tall graceful bush with large panicles of orange-colored flowers, a plant which might well be valued by horticulturists of the north. All through July and August these delight the eye and stand out in conspicuous contrast with the surrounding vegetation. Pinacate they call it, though the reason is not obvious. Again if we walk out over the lower slopes not far from the banks of some arroyo we may come upon the beautiful "huisache," Acacia farnesiana, in full bloom if the time is summer. This plant with its small delicate leaves, its white spines, its little balls of yellow flowers scattered in profusion along the younger branches, is a beauty to behold, but the casual passer-by, if insensible to the beauty of the flowers, may perchance be attracted by their sweet and delicate perfume. Farther along in a shallow wash where the waters occasionally take their way from the higher land, appears Chilopsis saligna in slender graceful form, swaying to every breeze. Its clusters of red flowers need not be seen to be aware of their presence, for their sweet fragrance is borne on the breezes far beyond that of most flowers. There are few desert flowers equally conspicuous in color and perfume, and few as well supplied with either as the desert willow. But where the way leads down into the bottom of the arroyo, almost hidden under the overhanging bank, one comes unexpectedly upon the beautiful "tronadora," to use its Spanish name. Few plants of the desert are more striking in their beauty than this, with its dark, deeply compound leaves and its conspicuous cluster of orange-colored flowers, which reminds one in their form and attitude of those of the trumpet-creeper, and well it may, for it is Tecoma starts, a member of the same genus. If we thread along still further through the tangle of "charnís" (Forrestiera) with its load of mistletoe, and "junco" (Holacantha) and "huisache," with lacy trimmings of the vine, Nissolia, where the dry stream bed is flanked by Trixis, and sometimes Tatalencho (Gymnosperma) on upward to where the steep banks of the arroyo give way to less precipitous rocky slopes and into the deeper cañon beyond, Asclepias linaria springs from the sandy wash at our feet with its sheaf of slender stems, each capped by its umbel of white flowers. Now just to the right where a limestone cliff faces the north and receives little light from the sun that scorches the ground just beyond, is a patch of resurrection plants with their star-like forms expanded to full view by the moisture acquired from the recent shower. The day before when we passed this same way these plants had coiled themselves together into compact balls and were hardly visible in the crevices of the rock. But with the drenching shower came the resurrection to renewed activity. Near at hand some shrubs are covered with a furry growth of grayish grassy-looking plants, which upon nearer approach are seen to be a dense growth of Tillandsia recurvata, a sort of Florida moss, which finds in the moister air of the canon floor or the