Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-02-09
PLANTS OF DEATH VALLEY
Beautiful Flowers Found in Great
 Stretches of Desert

Not half the plants of Death Valley are known to scientists; most of those that are known are little more than names and will never be more until the prying arm of the railroad shall | have laid bare some of the secrets Oy this Vale of EIinnom.
 l Most beautiful and most plenty, of | course, of all these plants that bloom on the desert are the cacti, and the rapidity with which tlleir dry and apparently withered stalks put out blossoms under the touch of the rains is wonderful.
 The largest and showiest blossom of them all yiows on short stocky stem, which during the summer docs not seem to have life enough to pro- duce the magnificent waxy flowers, which are often as much as five inch es across.
 A cactus much larger than this. the barrel cactus has very small and in significant bloom, while the tniest of all, low. creeping, round stemmed jointed growth, has an immense pink flower. beautiful as any orchid and rivalling the fairest rose of Persia in its Odor.
 Unfortunately the names of these rare species are not we'll known, ai1. the commoner varieties. which are also found on the coast slope, bear no such gorgeous array of blossoms. Old friends greet the traveller on the rim of Death Valley too. There is the cholla pronounced choyah), which while large and many branched. pro- duces few or no flowers. reproducing itself by slipping" os our grandmoth- CTS were wont to say of their choice geraniums.
 Wherever an unusually long branch faills to the ground 1t seems almost to work it's way into the earth so soon do the shifting sands cover 1t. Then a process of roofing takes place so that soon an entirely separate plant comes. up few feet from the parent. So it is that great beds of cactl are formed throughout the desert.
 One noticeable thing about all the plants in and around Death Valley is that they grow low to the ground-for 4o living thing can stand against the simoons that sweep this level floor for POO miles on over into the Nevada desert. These low growers protect themselves from the drifting sand in wonderful ingenious manner. When the plant first breaks from the ground it comes up not in one stem. as do the taller cacti, but in many tiny, branch ing stalks. so that what solid earth and rocks there are among the sand clouds fall between these stalks and form d sort of Openwork barricade. Against this the sand drifts but does not choke out the life of the plant. The winds of the desert always blow from the same direction so that the baricade is always available whether it be a rain, wind or sand storm that is blowing. /.
 Another beautiful boomer of this } far desert raises fot long shaft. four pointed and like no other flower stalks in the world. On it are clustered great. waxen blossoms, two or three inches across, perfumed with all the sweet scents of Cyprus and the Ind, and ranging from palest golden white . to deepest purple. , From right to left of the narrow valley more than 400 feet below the ] level of the sea. 2J0 miles away, these beds of caeti stretnh.liIh winter and spring when they are all abloOm with flame. they seem like some great cloth of gold to the traveller pauslng on the rim of the Funeral Range, or dipping down with his burTOs through Windy , Gap. These beds are sometimes large. covering acres in dense patches: in other places they are small and stunt ed. so that the traveller meets with scattered clumps of the thorny shrubs miles before he comes upon traces of the dead alkaline lakes that mark the edge of the valley.
 Other plants than cactl arc scarce , in Death Valley, but two species of mesquite grow from one end of the valley to the other. both blooming pro- fuseIy and adding their quota or odor to the air. When they seed the beans are gathered by the Flutes and ground up for four.
 All in all. there are doubtless hun ' dreds of acres of cacti in this one part of the California desert. and it's beauty when in bloom is something indescrib- able. especially when seen in the
 midst of barren sand flats.-San Fran I cisco Chronicle.
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