USEFUL NATIVE PLANTS OF NEW MEXICO STANDLEY. 457 



the State are scattered thickets of the sand plum (Prunus watsoni) 

 whose fruit is used for jams and jellies. The wild red plum (Prunus 

 americana) is known in a few localities in the mountains. It is 

 abundant about the pueblo of Taos whose inhabitants utilize all 

 the fruit produced. In some parts of the State this plum seems to 

 have escaped from cultivation but in places it is almost certainly 

 indigenous. 



The buffalo berry (Lepargyrea argentea) grows in the San Juan 

 Valley, a large shrub usually about 10 feet high, with silvery white 

 leaves and clusters of very small currant-like berries. The fruit has a 

 flavor not unlike that of the cultivated red currant and is gathered 

 and preserved. Currants and gooseberries are seen everywhere in all 

 the mountain ranges. Unfortunately the fruit of the wild currants 

 is tasteless and insipid and is seldom used for food by the English- 

 speaking people although employed by the Indians formerly and to 

 some extent to-day. The native people used the fruit either fresh, 

 or dried and preserved for winter. From the berries certain of the 

 western tribes prepared an intoxicating beverage, one of the species, 

 Ribes inebrians, receiving its specific name from this fact. One of the 

 gooseberries (Grossularia pinetorum) is distinguished by having its 

 fruit, while agreeable to the taste, so densely covered by sharp spines 

 that it can not be eaten. Elderberries (Sambucus microbotrys and 

 other species) grow in most of the mountains and in the lower Kio 

 Grande Valley. All have edible fruit that is sometimes gathered. 

 The Mexican elderberry (Sambucus mexicana), which is frequent in 

 cultivation in the Rio Grande Valley and may be native in some parts 

 of the State, differs from the eastern species in becoming a good-sized 

 tree. It is valuable as an ornamental plant because it is green nearly 

 throughout the year and may put forth its blossoms even in January 

 or February if there are a few days of mild weather. The algerita 

 (Berberis Jiaematocarpa) , a native of the hills and dry canyons, is a 

 barberry which bears quantities of juicy blood-red berries that are 

 made into jellies. There are several other barberries, including the 

 "Oregon grape" (Berberis repens), which grow in New Mexico, but 

 never in sufficient abundance to furnish any considerable amount of 

 fruit. One of the ground cherries (PJiysalis neomexicana) , a trouble- 

 some weed in cultivated land at higher elevations, makes excellent 

 preserves, besides being prepared in other ways. 



The fruits that have been mentioned are nearly all that are used 

 by the English-speaking people of the State, but in former times the 

 Indians were compelled by the general scarcity of food to make use 

 of many others, and some of the more primitive tribes, like the 

 Navahos, still employ some of them. Among those whose fruit has 

 been utilized are the lote bush ' (Zizyphus lycioides) and Condalia 

 spathulata, low straggling desert shrubs of the southern mesas, the 



