beyond the coils which enfolded the body and about which they were entwined. The last turns formed a kind of block upon which rested and was thrown back the stretched neck like the cord on a capstan.

The whole body of the wicked serpent had disappeared within the folds of the good serpent; its extremities alone remained visible, the helpless head on one side, the slowly moving tail at the other.

"He is going to dislocate the cervical vertebræ," Dr. Brazil whispered to me, "you will see; it is very curious." Indeed it was very curious and even rather horrible to see. But we were as if fascinated by this spectacle, the contest between the good and the bad reptile, between Ormuzd and Ahriman.

During several minutes, which seemed to me interminable, Ormuzd had stretched the neck of his half-dead adversary, using some of his own entwining coils as a fulcrum, and ingeniously employing the principle of the lever. Then he commenced to twist slowly from right to left, from left to right, the stretched, taut neck.

Was Ahriman dead when I left this spectacle to see the rest of the institution? I would not venture to say that he was entirely dead when Ormuzd, after our departure, commenced to swallow him. An hour later, when we returned, the deed was almost done. The good Mussurana was stretched at full length upon the ground where we had left them rolled up as in a ball. We could distinctly see by the abrupt swelling of the steely armor the point to which the swallowing of the prey had progressed. The latter had disappeared, swallowed up close to the tail; and a detail which struck me and which moved me despite my knowledge of the unconsciousness of reflex movements, that little tail was coiled about one of the legs of a table and clung to it yet with convulsive tremblings.

SOME USEFUL NATIVE PLANTS OF NEW MEXICO.

[With 13 plates.]

By PAUL C. STANDLEY.

When the Spanish conquistadores journeyed northward from the mountains and plains of Mexico into what is now the United States, their initial expeditions led them along the narrow valley of the Rio Grande. Near the banks of this stream, or sometimes at some distance from its waters, they found pueblos or Indian villages whose inhabitants supported themselves principally by agriculture. The surrounding regions were peopled by nomadic tribes who derived their sustenance from the untilled resources of an apparently unproductive land.

A not uncommon belief among people who have never visited the far Southwest that part of the United States consisting of New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, and the adjacent lands-is that it is a vast desert. By a desert is generally understood a region where the water supply is scanty or lacking and the vegetation sparse. That such a condition is characteristic of large portions of New Mexico must be acknowledged. Not a small proportion of that State consists of sandy plains with but a thin mantle of vegetation, or of barren rocky hills and great malpais-areas invested with comparatively recent lava flows. But there remains a considerable area composed of fertile river valleys artificially watered by the streams which flow through them, and a still larger region of high mountains covered with heavy forests and luxuriant herbage. Among the thickly scattered ranges rise many high peaks upon which snow remains through nearly the entire year.

In the most arid desert regions plant life is abundant, even if inconspicuous, and the variety of species to be found there is greater than one would infer from the number of individual plants. Many among these have proved useful to man and were of the greatest importance in the economy of the early inhabitants. Existence must have been one continuous struggle among the aborigines, situated in a country

where climatic conditions from an ordinary point of view are unfavorable. They had to depend almost wholly upon the natural resources of their homes until the Spaniards introduced domestic animals and improved methods of agriculture, and they were therefore forced to utilize every possible source of food, whether among plants or animals. There have come down to us accounts of the employment for food of many plants which, to the people of to-day, would seem impossible of being thus utilized. The Zuñis, for instance, gathered and ate the inner layer of the bark of the yellow pine, a substance most difficult of digestion and at best very low in nutritive value. Tradition has failed to record the foods to which the people were driven in times of unusual want, but in such periods almost every plant not absolutely poisonous must have been requisitioned. With the advent of civilization, and especially in recent years with the development of the railroads, making it possible to import provisions, the use of many substances which formerly served as food has been discontinued, even by the least civilized tribes. While the earlier inhabitants of New Mexico depended upon dozens or even hundreds of the native plants, present inhabitants disregard all but a few, now that more suitable food can be so easily secured. There are, however, a number of plants which are still used extensively by the natives of the country for different purposes, and some have even attracted the attention of the recent immigrants.

Most important among native economic plants, at least to the original population, were those which furnished food. Not less deserving mention here are some that are or have been employed for fuel, in basketry, as dye plants, and for certain other purposes.

The most interesting, certainly the most remarkable, group of southwestern plants consists of the members of the Cactaceæ or cactus family. These at once attracted the attention of the early explorers, and no stranger visiting this region, whether he be interested in the botanical features of a region or not, fails to remark upon these peculiar forms of vegetation. Over 70 species of this group are known to occur in New Mexico, ranging in size from the small globular Mamillarias or pincushion cactuses, often less than an inch in diameter, to the large branched cholla or cane cactus, frequently 10 feet high or more. Almost all the representatives of this family bristle with spines, which fortify them against the assaults of animals, or possess other adaptations for maintaining themselves amid the most unfavorable surroundings. They are found everywhere in New Mexico except upon the high mountains, but they are by far most numerous in the southern part of the State. Here on a single small calcareous hill no less than 15 species have been collected, each represented by hundreds of individuals.

For the greater part of the year cactuses are little more than masses of spines, of bizarre but scarcely beautiful appearance; but in the spring with the advent of warm weather their buds develop and the plants are transformed into clusters of resplendent flowers. No southwestern plants produce more showy blossoms; hence they are admirably suited for cultivation in arid districts, where it is difficult or impossible to grow the ornamental plants favored elsewhere. The most beautiful of all our native cactuses are the species of the genus Echinocereus. These are characterized by spiny cylindrical stems, seldom more than 1 foot high and 3 or 4 inches in diameter, growing singly or in clumps. Their flowers, borne profusely along the angles of the stems, are very large, often 6 inches long, and of bright and rich hues ranging through yellow, pink, scarlet, salmon, crimson, and purple. At the New Mexico Agricultural College beds of some of the different species have been established, each containing several hundred plants. When in full flower these present a display of color seldom equaled by any of our cultivated plants. Unfortunately they do not bloom all summer, but usually continue in flower several weeks. Other groups of the Cactaceae are almost equally handsome. The prickly pears are covered in early summer with yellow or whitish flowers. The cane cactus (Opuntia arborescens) bears hundreds of large red blossoms. The flowers of the Mamillarias are generally bright pink but too small to be showy, and those of the species of Echinocactus are small and of dull tints.

The most widely distributed of the cactuses are the prickly pears or flat-jointed Opuntias, whose representatives in New Mexico number about 30 species, at least one or two of which occur in every section of the State (pls. 2, 3). This is the group to which the so-called "spineless cactus" belongs. While there are no native species in New Mexico that are completely spineless, at least two are practically so. The spineless sorts which are reputed to have been developed in cultivation are tender and can not endure the winters of even the southern part of the State. The common spiny prickly pears, the nopales of the Spanish-speaking people, are used as food for stock, especially when seasons of drought have depleted the ranges. They are less extensively utilized in New Mexico than in some other parts of the Southwest, chiefly because the stockmen of the State are unacquainted with their possibilities. To prepare them for cattle feed the spines are singed off with a torch, after the plants have been hauled to some central point or while they are standing in the field. Experiments have been made to ascertain the feasibility of growing prickly pear in quantity for stock feed, but these have so far resulted in failure, chiefly because cottontails and jack rabbits eat them as rapidly as they grow and seem to prefer the cultivated plants. When

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hard pressed by hunger cattle will eat cactuses, spines and all, even attacking the very spiny chollas. The joints of the chollas are readily detached from the plants and are often seen clinging to the animals' bodies.

In some parts of the Southwest the young pads of the prickly pear are prepared for human food, the tender joints being peeled and cooked in various ways. They are not likely to become a popular vegetable since they are nearly flavorless and their large amount of mucilaginous matter is unpleasant to most people. The joints have been used as poultices and their juice is occasionally employed in sizing rough walls preparatory to the application of paper.

The fruit of the prickly pear, known as the tuna (pl. 4, B), is highly prized in Mexico, where it is gathered in great quantities. The kinds growing there have larger and more palatable fruits than any of the New Mexican forms. Some of the northern species produce a dry fruit consisting of little but spines and seeds, and consequently inedible. Others of the tunas are large and juicy and beautifully colored, but even they have large seeds. The fruit has a pleasant flavor and a taste for it does not have to be acquired, as it must for so many of the unusual tropical or semitropical fruits. Some of the other cactuses have still better flavored fruits, best of all being those borne by the different species of Echinocereus. In this genus the seeds are small and can be eaten along with the pulp. In the earlier days, and to some extent at the present time, the different cactus fruits were gathered by the Indians, who ate the fresh ones either raw or cooked, and often dried them in the sun for use in winter. The tunas are covered with very fine spines which must be removed, the Indians resorting to small brushes of dried grass for the purpose. The Echinocereus fruits, besides being much more finely flavored than the tunas, are easier to eat because they are protected only by large spines that are easily removed with the fingers when the fruit is fully ripe.

Tunas have not been utilized extensively in New Mexico by recent immigrants who often eat them when they happen upon ripe fruits but seldom make any definite effort to gather them in quantity. Sometimes they are collected and their juice extracted and used in the preparation of jellies and sirups, the products thus obtained comparing favorably in flavor and appearance with any similar ones from other fruits. It has been discovered that a valuable coloring matter, a rich red similar to that of cochineal, can be extracted from them to be used in tinting candies and pastry. The prickly pear, incidentally, is often a host of the cochineal insect which in spring and early summer often completely covers the plants with its white webs.

In the southern part of New Mexico, on the mesas bordering the Rio Grande, is one of the most remarkable cactuses, known as the fishhook or barrel cactus or viznaga (Echinocactus wislizeni, pl. 6, A).