as the little finger, full of rich purple juice, and so tender and 

 soft as to be scarcely marketable. They are highly esteemed 

 by most persons, though of too heavy a flavor for some. The 

 European mulberry, much cultivated, is not to be compared 

 with this. Southvvestward we have several smaller, less juicy, 



A group of fruits not nearly as well known as they should be 



Some of these are very small, no larger than the sharpened end 

 of a lead pencil, and of similar form. It is probably for this 

 reason that they are not better known, for some of them are 

 really excellent. Many, even among those of larger size, are sour, 

 slimy or "flat," and would not commend themselves to the 

 civilized taste ; but a few are large, well-flavored and highly 

 nutritious, and are not only among the most important of Indian 

 foods, but have been highly valued by all travelers who have 

 become familiar with them. The most important of them is the 

 pitahaya of the Apaches, produced by a large columnar cactus, 

 Cereus Thurberi, of Arizona and northern Mexico. The fruit is 

 of the form and size of an orange, green externally, containing 

 a rich crimson-scarlet pulp with innumerable small, imbedded 



they subsist almost entirely upon it. While the pulp is the 

 flavored portion, the seeds are more important, owing to their 

 highly nutritive qualities. This fruit is cooked and preserved in 



erages. The famous giant cactus of Arizona (C. giganteus) pro- 

 duces the saguaro, a fruit similarly used. It is elliptical in form, 

 and the pulp is of a deeper crimson. The facts stated suggest 

 the use of the fruits of the common prickly pear cactus of the 

 Atlantic coast. These small, yellowish, shriveled fruits, about 

 as large as plums, are rather dry, mucilaginous and insipid, ex- 

 cept for their mild acidity, and we do not find them palatable. 

 Nevertheless, history records their use, by both aborigines and 

 settlers. They were usually stewed and strained into a mass 

 much resembling apple-sauce. 



