380 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



DISTINCTIVE FLORA OF ARIZONA. 



J. A. .Spring, a botanist of Tucson, sends to tlie San Francisco Post an ac- 

 coimt of the distinctive flora of Arizona. Some jDeculiar uses of the strange 

 plants are described. The candelabra cactus has been employed by the 

 Apache Indians for communicating signals; its height is fifteen or twenty 

 feet, but occasionally specimens are found fifty feet high. To make it a 

 signal light it is only necessary to set fire near the ground to one of the 

 vertical rows of prickles with which the plant is adorned; the flame runs 

 to the top, and the candelabra becomes a torch. But the plant is not de- 

 stroyed, nor apparently injured, by such burning on the surface. When 

 dead and dry the wood is found to be hollow, and it separates at once into 

 a number of sticks or poles, these having been chiefly held together by the 

 rind. The fruit of this cactus makes a pleasant preserve. That of another, 

 the "prickly pear," is well known to travelers. The young leaves of the 

 prickly pear cactus are cooked as a vegetable, the dish produced being 

 something like string beans in appearance and taste; the leaves are also 

 highly esteemed for use in making a poultice to draw a splinter. The 

 "nigger-head" cactus furnishes ready-made fish-hooks in countless num- 

 bers; by surrounding the plant with fire it produces water for the thirsty 

 traveler, the heat driving its fluid to the interior, whence nearly a half gal- 

 lon is obtained, "Mague}-" is a palatable preparation made by roasting 

 the leafy heads of the century plant; it saved a whole garrison in Arizona, 

 ten years ago, from scurvv. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



CLOSE OP THE FIRST VOLUME. 



With this number of the Review the first 

 half year of its existence closes, and upon look- 

 ing it over we are pretty well satisfied with it. 

 We have given our readers three hundred and 

 eighty-four pages of good, substantial, reliable 

 reading, and have distributed for our adver- 

 tisers six thousand copies of a handsome, well 

 printed periodical, in more than half of the 

 States in the Union, but especially in Kansas, 

 Missouri and Colorado, where it has reached 

 not les3 than four or five times as many readers. 

 We have been cordially welcomed by the 

 scientific periodicals of the country, and al- 

 ready number most of them among our ex- 

 changes, and have received compliments and 

 congratulations from the daily and weekly pa- 

 pers on all sides. 



We have published original articles from 



some of the best observers, writers and scien- 

 tific workers of the West, such as Broadhead, 

 Kedzie, Snow, West, Halley, Berthoud and 

 Crosby, and compilations and condensations 

 which have cost us a great deal of labor and 

 time, besides selections from many of the best 

 journals in the world. The main thing wanting 

 now to make the Keview a permanent success 

 is more subscribers and a few more advertisers. 

 We feel that we ought to have both, not as a 

 gratuity, but simply because our periodical is 

 worthy of them, and will repay both as a busi- 

 ness investment. 



The Boston Journal of Chemistry notes that 

 at a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Den- 

 tal Society, in Salem, Dr. S. F. Waters stated 

 that the application of bi-carbonate of soda, 

 that is, plain cooking soda, to be found in all 



