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 food, 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 Cactacese 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. 



