CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 21 



attain the size of small trees in Oak Spring and other 

 canyons where, well sheltered from sweeping winds, 

 their crops of acorns have supplied food to man and 

 beast for untold time. Scrub oaks of several species, 

 rarely attaining the dignity of trees, cover many of the 

 more exposed slopes and still have a real value as food 

 and cover for stock and game. 



Fair-sized black cherry trees grow along the canyon 

 bottoms and bear an abundance of sweet fruit for birds 

 and beasts. Even man enjoys their juicy richness, 

 with its faintly bitter tang. 



In many of the gulches and canyons New Mexico 

 maple forms groves of small trees, affording grateful 

 shade, tough, hard wood, and a possible source of sweet 

 sap. 



A small green ash often grows with the maples and 

 oaks and adds another source of tough, springy wood in 

 a country where such wood fiber is scarce and needed. 



The little desert black walnut, low and spreading, 

 may easily be overlooked in the dry washes, but on 

 rich bottom land, where moisture is not too scant, it 

 sometimes makes trees fifteen or twenty feet high, 

 with trunks of fence-post size. Its feathery foliage 

 might almost be mistaken for that of the mesquite, 

 but its little, round black walnuts, the size of marbles, 

 often load the branches and are unmistakable. They 

 are as palatable as any walnuts if one has time to crack 

 and eat them. Once when a heavy shower kept me 

 waiting for half an hour under the camp wagon beside 

 one of these trees, I decided that I could live on walnuts 

 if I gave all my time to it. The rock squirrels and wood 



