58 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
Previous to the heavy rains and floods in our South- 
western territory during the past summer very little rain 
had fallen for three years. The beds of most streams were 
perfectly dry and even the Rio Grande carried very little 
water. Scarcely a vestige of green vegetation was to be 
seen except in the cafions far up in the mountains. We 
saw the cattle lying upon the hills dead and dying. Those 
which survived had done so only through the most terrible 
straits. Many of them in their desperation were glad to 
feed upon even the older Agaves and the Cacti; and I was 
told that it was no uncommon thing to find their tongues 
pierced through and through with a network of the terrible 
spines. 
ECONOMIC USES. 
From time immemorial these plants have been utilized in 
various ways. The Aztecs showed their appreciation by 
reverencing ‘‘ Mescal’’ or the Agave, as one of their gods 
under the name of Quetzalcoatl.* 
The Aztecs, Mayas and other inhabitants of the country 
have made saddle-cloths, sacks, ropes and other articles 
from the fibers. The softer parts have afforded them 
important articles of food and drink and a soapy liquid for 
washing. The flowering stalks made handles for their 
lances, poles for fishing, and walls for their houses. Of 
the central shootf of the Mescal the Apaches made their 
fiddles (Captain Bourke unfortunately is not willing to in- 
dorse the music). The end-spine with attached filament 
served as needle and thread. When General Crook went in 
March, 1886, to treat with Geronimo, in the Chiricahuas, he 
found him and his Indian warriors in a rancheria whose 
buildings were constructed of Agave and Yucca stalks.f 
* <¢On the Border with Crook.’? Captain John G. Bourke. 1891. 10. 
+ Captain John G. Bourke. Folk Foods of the Rio Grande Valley and 
Northern Mexico, in American Folk Lore, April, 1895. 
¢ On the Border with Crook. Captain John G. Bourke. 476. 
