196 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



-.V- 



THE GIANT CACTUS— A BEAUTIFUL 

 PLANT. 



beauty stands the remarkable utility 

 of these plants of the desert. Forced by 

 stern necessity, the desert dwellers have 

 learned to put to some use everything 

 which the barren soil produces. Food, 

 fibre, materials for houses and medicines, 

 all come from the seemingly scanty store- 

 house. 



The mesquite has been called the 

 mother tree of the desert. It supplies 

 building material, firewood, dye, pitch- 



ing gum, basket twigs and, last of all, 

 food. In fact it is to the people of the 

 desert what the bamboo is to the people 

 of the Orient. The rich and nutritious 

 beans it bears are eaten raw and cooked 

 in their green state by the Indians. 

 These long pods enclose a seed rich in 

 oil, and when thoroughly dry the Indian 

 women grind them into flour in their 

 primitive mills of flat stones. This 

 flour is made into mush, hard bread or 

 fermented into a kind of beer. Even 

 the dry pods themselves are sweet and 

 contain much food value. 



Another food plant very highly prized 

 is the mescal or Mexican maguey, an 

 agave which is a close relative of the 

 century plant. The time for blossoming 

 draws near and the Indians far and near 

 hasten to the slopes where the mescal 

 plants are most numerous. They gather 

 in the huge buds, in appearance much 

 like gigantic asparagus tips. The whole 



P %L. 4t 



'■%£ 



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CHOLLA CACTUS. 



