STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OP MEXICO. 865 



areoles axillary, bearing spines, barbed bristles (glochids), bairs, flowers, and 

 sometimes glands ; leaves usually small, terete, mostly early deciduous ; spines 

 solitary or in clusters, terete or flattened, naked or sheatbed ; glocbids usually 

 numerous, borne above the spines ; flowers usually one at an areole ; ovary 

 many-ovuled, bearing leaves, the areoles often with spines and glochids ; sepals 

 usually grading into the petals ; petals usually of various shades and combi- 

 nations of green, yellow, and red (rarely white), widely spreading; stamens 

 much shorter than the petals, sensitive ; fruit a berry, diy or juicy, often edible, 

 spiny or naked, globular, ovoid, or ellipsoid ; seed covered by a hard bony aril, 

 white, flattened. 



The species of Opuntia are common in nearly all parts of Mexico, par- 

 ticularly in the arid regions. Those of the subgenus Platiiopuntia are of 

 great economic importance because of their edible fruits. Not all species 

 produce edible fruits, but in certain ones the fruits are large and of excel- 

 lent quality. During their season the tunas are tjie principal food of the 

 people in certain parts of Mexico, and enormous quantities of them are con- 

 sumed. Usually they are eaten raw, but they are also cooked in various 

 ways, and sweetmeats are made from them. Queso de tuna consists of the 

 dried fruit pressed into large cakes ; this is widely sold in the markets. 

 Miel de tuna is a syrup prepared from the fruit. Melcocha is a thick 

 paste made by boiling down the juice. Colonche is the boiled and fermented 

 juice. Nochote or nochocle is a fei-mented beverage prepared from tuna juice, 

 pulque, and water.i Tejuino also is a beverage prepared from the juice 

 of the fruit. 



The tender young joints are often cooked as a vegetable. They are also 

 applied as poultices to reduce inflammation. The juice of the joints is 

 sometimes boiled with tallow in making candles, in order to make the 

 candles hard. 



Among some of the Californian Indians the seeds were an important food. 

 These were stored until winter, when they were ground and used to pre- 

 pare a kind of atole. 



Many of the Opuntias are of importance as food for stock in the arid 

 regions. In order to make them more easily edible, the spines are some- 

 times burned off with torches.^ 



The usual name for a plant of the subgenus Platyopuntia is "nopal"; 

 for the fruit " tuna " (a name said to be of West Indian origin). The English 

 name is prickly pear. An infinite number of names is employed in Mexico 

 to designate the numerous varieties of the fruit that are recognized. The 

 following are some of the names that are reported for the plants and their 

 fruits : " Nochtli " (fruit ; Nahuatl) ; " culhua " ; " pacac ", " potzotz " 

 (Huastec) ; "taat" (Mixe) ; "pare" (Tarascan) ; " caha " (fruit), " xfttha " 

 (plant) (Otoml). 



The nopal occupies a prominent place in Mexican legend and history, and 

 upon the national banner there appears an eagle perched upon a nopal plant. 



The tunas are mentioned by all the early writers, as, for instance, Oviedo, 

 who devotes a long chapter to them. Bernal Diaz del Castillo mentions 

 them as one of the fruits depended upon for food during the siege of Mexico 



1 For an account of the economic properties of the genus see Hare and 

 Griffiths, The tuna as food for man, N. Mex. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 64. 1907. 



2 See Griffiths and Hare, Prickly pear and other cacti as food for stock, 

 N. Mex. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 60. 1906. 



