448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
where climatic conditions from an ordinary point of view. are unfa- 
vorable. They had to depend almost wholly upon the natural 
resources of their homes until the Spaniards introduced domestic 
animals and improved methods of agriculture, and they were there- 
fore forced to utilize every possible source of tood, whether among 
plants or animals. There have come down to us accounts of the 
employment for food of many plants which, to the people of to-day, 
would seem impossible of being thus utilized. ‘The Zufiis, for instance, 
gathered and ate the inner layer of the bark of the yellow pine, a 
substance most difficult of digestion and at best very low in nutritive 
value. Tradition has failed to record the foods to which the people 
were driven in times of unusual want, but in such periods almost 
every plant not absolutely poisonous must have been requisitioned. 
With the advent of civilization, and especially in recent years with 
the development of the railroads, making it possible to import provi- 
sions, the use of many substances which formerly served as food has 
been discontinued, even by the least civilized tribes. While the 
earlier inhabitants of New Mexico depended upon dozens or even 
hundreds of the native plants, present inhabitants disregard all but 
a few, now that more suitable food can be so easily secured. There 
are, however, a number of plants which are still used extensively by 
the natives of the country for different purposes, and some have 
even attracted the attention of the recent immigrants. 
Most important among native economic plants, at least to the 
original population, were those which furnished food. Not less 
deserving mention here are some that are or have been employed for 
fuel, in basketry, as dye plants, and for certain other purposes. 
The most interesting, certainly the most remarkable, group of 
southwestern plants consists of the members of the Cactacez or cactus 
family. These at once attracted the attention of the early explorers, 
and no stranger visiting this region, whether he be interested in the 
botanical features of a region or not, fails to remark upon these 
peculiar forms of vegetation. Over 70 species of this group are known 
to occur in New Mexico, ranging in size from the small globular 
Mamillarias or pincushion cactuses, often less than an inch in diame- 
ter, to the large branched cholla or cane cactus, frequently 10 feet 
high or more. Almost all the representatives of this family bristle 
with spines, which fortify them against the assaults of animals, or 
possess other adaptations for maintaining themselves amid the most 
unfavorable surroundings. They are found everywhere in New 
Mexico except upon the high mountains, but they are by far most 
numerous in the southern part of the State. Here on a single small 
calcareous hill no less than 15 species have been collected, each rep- 
resented by hundreds of individuals. 
