USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



grace the table, it is quite credible that within the 

 spiny armor of the Cactus tribe nutrition may be 

 hiding. As a matter of fact, in the Southwest the 

 Mexican and Indian popul-a-tion resort to the Nopal 

 (that is, the flat-jointed sort of Opuntia) not only 

 for the tuna fruit, as described in a previous chapter, 

 but also for the succulent flesh of the stem, which 

 may be made to do duty as a vegetable. The Mexi- 

 cans call these flattened joints pencas, and gather the 

 young ones when about half grown and before the 

 spines have hardened. Cut into narrow strips, 

 boiled until tender and served with a tasty dressing 

 or just salt and pepper, they are about in the class 

 of string beans, particularly grateful to desert dwell- 

 ers whose craving for green food it is not always 

 easy to satisfy. There is a bluish-green, procumbent 

 cactus without spines (Opuntia basilaris, Engelm.) 

 common in the southwestern deserts, that has been 

 in particular favor with the Indians, and the Pana- 

 mint method of preparing it, as recorded by Mr. 

 Coville, 4 may be stated here : In May or early June 

 the fleshy joints of the season's growth, as well as 

 the buds, blossoms and immature fruit, are distended 

 with sweet sap. The joints are then broken off and 

 collected, carefully rubbed with grass to remove the 



* The American Anthropologist, October, 1892. 



132 



