greatly because of overgrazing by sheep and cattle, and the cutting of the trees for wood.

Arrow-weed (Pluchea sericea). — A shrubby desert plant which grows on lands liable to overflow. The pink flowers yield a light-amber honey of good quality.

Arizona Mesquite (Prosopis velutina). — Grows in the hot dry valleys of Arizona, southern California, and Sonora. The largest of the mesquites attain a height of 50 feet, though often they are not over 15 feet tall. Blooms from April to June 15, and a second time two weeks later Honey light amber, excellent flavor, crystallizes quickly after extracting.

Catsclaw (Acacia Greggii). — Western Texas to southern California. May to June. Honey white, excellent.

Arizona Acacia (Acacia constricta).—A spiny shrub, three feet tall, with bright-yellow flowers in globular heads. Dry hills. June.

Tornillo (Strombocarpa odorata). — Screw bean. A small tree found from western Texas to California. Yellow flowers in May. A common large shrub in the river valleys. Pods spirally twisted. (Synonym, Prosopis pubescens).

Palo Verde (Cercidium torreyanum). — Desert regions of Arizona, California, and Sonora. A small tree with green bark and yellow flowers in April. The leaves appear in April or May. Yields less nectar than mesquite; the honey is yellow, heavy, and of good flavor. (Synonym, Parkinsonia torreyana).

Creosote-bush (Covillea tridentata). — A spreading evergreen shrub with small bright yellow flowers. Dry plains and mesas. Near Tucson it blooms for three months.

Water Motor (Baccharis glutinosa). — Bottom willow. A common shrub in the river valleys, preferring land that is sometimes inundated; honey white, excellent; a large surplus is often obtained near Phoenix.

Willow (Salix Wrightii). — Along water-courses. Blooms in March. Also western willow, S. lasiandra.

Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia). — Widely scattered over the slopes.

Gilia (Gilia floccosa). — Common everywhere in southern Arizona.

Prickly Pear (Opuntia Bigelovii). — There are 15 or more species near Tucson. Thirty species are listed for New Mexico. O. Bigelovii has a wide range on the southern deserts.

Near Phoenix, on the deserts, two species of plaintain (Plantago ignota and P. fastigiata), known locally as Indian wheat, are very abundant, and are eaten by cattle. They are of value to bees for pollen, but yield no nectar.

The average moisture of the honey in Arizona is 16.85 per cent., which is much less than that of eastern honeys.

NEVADA

Total area, 110,690 square miles. Nevada and western Utah form the larger part of the Great Basin, a vast tableland 4000 to 5000 feet above the level of the sea, lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Range. The surface of this region is not a plain, but is broken by many isolated parallel mountain ranges running north and south, between which are valleys 5 to 20 miles in width. At an elevation above 6000 feet the mountains are heavily forested with pine, juniper, and mountain mahogany. The valleys are bare of trees except for a few willows and poplars; but sagebrush is so abundant that it gives a grayish tinge to the landscape, whence Nevada is known as the “Sagebrush State.” Greasewood and saltbush are also common; but in the southern valleys cactus and yucca replace the sagebrush. The Black Rock Desert, in northwestern Nevada, is barren of vegetation, due to the strongly alkaline soil; and in the southern part around Las