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only do Mexicans and Indians eat its fruit with avidity, but the 
leavesas well when necessity requires. The leaves, or rather joints, 
of this and allied species are very juicy and an important fodder 
for cattle and sheep, being at once food and drink. 
The Mexican Prickly Pear or Tuna (O. 7uua Mill.), cultivated 
in Mexico from time immemorial, and whose fruit is found in all 
the markets of that country, was not known to our Indians; it 
was brought by the Spaniards into Florida and California where 
it is now naturalized. 
The seeds, not only of the fruit of Opuntia but of all edible 
species of the order, are often separated by the Indians, parched 
and pulverized and made into excellent gruel. 
Most remarkable is the Giant Cactus (Cereus giganteus Eng.) 
the Suhuara or Pitahaya of the Mexicans and the vegetable wonder 
of Arizona, a tree mostly without branches, the straight, grooved 
shaft 30 to 50 feet high. The fruit is 2 to 3 inches long, full of a 
rich crimson pulp of a fine flavor and a great dainty to the 
Apaches, Pimos and Papagos. From it they prepare a clear 
light-brown syrup used as a substitue for sugar, and a fermented 
liquor having the taste and smell of sour beer. 
Still larger, sweeter and finer is. the fruit of GC. Thurderi Eng., 
the Pitahaya Dulce, common in Sonora and Lower California but 
not yet observed in the United States. Half a dozen other arbo- 
rescent species of Cereus with edib‘e fruit have been described 
from Northern Mexico and Lower California. Of the low and 
cespitose species, by far the most interesting from our standpoint 
is the Straw Cactus (€. stramineus Eng.) of Western Texas. The 
ripe fruit is red, 1% inches long and 1 thick, with thin skin bear- 
ing but few spines and easily peeled off; the seeds are so fine as 
to be unnoticed; it is equal or superior, in quality and flavor, to 
the best strawberry. 
The genus Mammillaria or, as revised by Prof. Coulter, Cactus, 
contains many native species bearing red berries of excellent 
taste ; I have eaten these with great relish on the Upper Missouri 
from C. viviparus and in Western Texas from C. Heyderi and others, 
while in Southern California C. Goodrichii is said Bie Orcutt to 
yield a delicious strawberry-like fruit. 
I may close my remarks upon this order by a mention of the 
