THE MEZQUITE. 159 



in Texas, where it has attained some celebrity, 

 grows in some of the fertile valleys of Clii- 

 huahua to the height of thirty and forty feet, 

 with a trunk of one to two feet in diameter. 

 The wood makes excellent fuel, hut it is sel- 

 dom used for other purposes, as it is crooked, 

 knotty, and very coarse and brittle, more re- 

 sembling the honey locust (of which it might 

 be considered a scrubby species) than the ma- 

 hogany, as some people have asserted. The 

 fruit is but a diminutive honey-locust in ap- 

 pearance and flavor, of the size and shape of 

 a flattened bean-pod, with the seeds disposed 

 in like manner. This pod, which, like that of 

 the honey locust, encloses a glutinous sub- 

 stance, the Apaches and other tribes of Indians 

 grind into flour to make their favorite pinole. 

 The mezquite seems undoubtedly of the Aca- 

 cia Arabica species ; as some physicians who 

 have examined the gum which exudes from 

 the tree, pronounce it genuine Arabic. 



On the water-courses there is htfle timber 

 to be found except Cottonwood, scantily scat- 

 tered along their banks. Those of the Rio 

 del Norte are now nearly bare throughout the 

 whole range of the settlements, and the inha- 

 bitants are forced to resort to the distant 

 mountains for most of theh fuel. But no- 

 where, even beyond the settlements, are there 

 to be seen such dense cottonwood bottoms 

 as those of the Mississippi valley. Besides 

 the conmion cottonwood there is another to 

 be found upon the mountain streams of New 

 Mexico, Avhich has been called willow-leaf 



