LITTLE REGARDED WILD FRUITS 



by bestowing its Spanish name on tlio " Datil Na- 

 tional Forest" of New Mexico. 



The Cactus family, those especial plant children 

 of the desert, yield some quite choice fruits, though 

 they make us work to get them, hedged al)out as they 

 are with vicious spines and bristles. Of several 

 genera indigenous to the ITnited States producing 

 edible berries, the most widely distributed is 

 Opuntia, embracing tw^o quite diif erent looking divi- 

 sions, one with broad, flattened joints (the Platopun- 

 tias) and one wdth cylindric, cane-like joints (the 

 Cylindropimtias) . Tlie former division includes the 

 well-known Prickly Pears or Indian Figs, of which 

 two species {Optmiia vulgaris^ Mill., and 0. Rafi- 

 nesquii, Engelm.) occur in sandy or sterile soil of 

 the Atlantic seaboard. Their seedy, lean, insipid 

 berries, each an inch or so long, are edible in a way, 

 but they are not at all in th^ same class with the 

 fat, juicy ^' pears" of many of the species growing 

 wild in the Southwestern desert country, where the 

 genus is best represented. Even there, there is 

 great choice in the fruits of different species, those 

 of the broad-jointed sort being much the best. Such 

 plants are called nopal by the Spanish-speaking 

 Southw^esterners and the fruit tuna. Among these 

 Opuntia laevis, Coult., and the varieties of 0. Engel- 



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