The nopal cactus, whose juicy fruit, called tuna, and flat leaf-like joints are an important article of food among the Indians, is found here and there, and is often planted near the dwellings of the natives.

There are also a few species of _Echinocactus_ and _Mammilaria_, but on the whole the cacti form no conspicuous feature in the higher altitudes of the sierra.
Along the streamlets which may be found in the numerous small valleys we met with the slender ash trees, beside alders, shrubs, _Euonymus_ with brilliant red capsules, willows, etc.

Conspicuous in the landscape was still the madrona, with its pretty, strawberry-like, edible berries.
Flowers on the whole are not abundant in the sierra.

The modest yellow _Mimulus_ along the water-courses is the first to come and the last to go.

Various forms of columbine (_Aquilegia_) and meadow rue (_Thalictrum_) should also be remembered.