160 THE SOAP-PLANT. 



or bitter cottonwood (populus angustifoUa2) 

 and has been reckoned by some a species of 

 cinchona, yet for no other reason perhaps than 

 that the bark possesses efficacious tonic quali- 

 ties. Attached to the seeds of this tree is also 

 a cotton similar to that of the sweet cotton- 

 wood, or populus angtfhia. 



Among the wild productions of New Mexi- 

 co is the palmilh — a species of palmetto, 

 which might be termed the soap-plant — whose 

 roots, as well as those of another species 

 known as palmu (or palm), when bruised, 

 form a saponaceous pulp called amole, much 

 used by the natives for washing clothes, and is 

 said to be even superior to soap for scouring 

 Woollens, 



But by far the most important indigenous 

 product of the soil of New Mexico is its pas- 

 turage. Most of the high table-plains afford 

 the finest grazing in the world, while, for 

 want of water, they are utterly useless for 

 most other purposes. That scanty moisture 

 which suffices to brmg forth the natural vege- 

 tation is insufficient for agricultural produc- 

 tions, without the aid of irrigation. The high 

 prairies of all Northern Mexico differ greatly 

 from those of our border in the general cha- 

 racter of their vegetation. They are remarka- 

 bly destitute of the gay floAvering plants for 

 which the former are so celebrated, being most- 

 ly clothed with different species of a highly 

 nutritious grass called grama, which is of a 

 very short and curly quahty. The highlands, 



upon which alone this sort of grass is produc- 



