2 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



family separately from the others, moving about from place 

 to place as fancy or need dictates and driving before them their 

 bands of sheep, goats and horses, in which mainly their mater- 

 ial wealth consists. 



Into our Arizona camp one showery morning two 

 Navajo shepherdesses strayed, and after enjoying our camp 

 fire for a while, one of them tossed something from her 

 blanket into the blaze and scraped some ashes over it. Two 

 or three more of the same things followed and were similarly 

 burried in the hot ashes. Each was the size and shape of a 

 large butternut, and greenish white in color. By and by she 

 withdrew them, and removing the charred skin, ate them, with 

 evident relish. 



"What are you eating, sister?" asked Bob, our guide, in 

 her native tongue. 



And she told him hosh-kaivn — the Navajo word for the 

 fruit of the widely distributed Yucca haccata, or Spanish bay- 

 onet, of the Southwest. 



It was August, and we had passed hundreds of the fruit- 

 ing plants in our travels without suspecting them of edibility ; 

 but that day we made a business of gathering a quantity of the 

 fruit and at night had a hosh-kazoi roast. Bob said they had 

 roast apples "plum skinned ;" but to my notion, the flavor was 

 rather that of sweet potato. At any rate we thought them 

 good, and they inspired respect in us for Navajo cookery. 



That, however, is only the beginning of the story of the 

 yucca's usefulness ; for in some measure, the yucca has, in 

 its time, been to the desert Indian what the date palm has been 

 to the Arab. Besides furnishing food (the fruit is not only 

 eaten green, but by some Indians is cured for winter use), the 

 plant has a fibre of much value as a textile material, and in pre- 

 Columbian times this was largely used in the weaving of gar- 

 ments, remains of which have been abundantly found in the 

 ancient clifif dwellings of the Southwest. I have myself picked 



