EXPLORATIONS IN CAPE REGION, 757 



very juicy, high flavored, slightly acid, but also very sweet. 



This cactus grows everywhere on the low mesa land to 

 an altitude of about 1200 feet, and the fruit can be had 

 for the picking or bought for next to nothing. This fruit 

 is, like all cactus fruit, covered with spines, but they may 

 be scraped off easily and are not troublesome. A most 

 beautiful preserve is made from the pitahaya with sugar. 

 In taste the pitahaya reminds one of a very fine water- 

 melon. There is another kind known as " pitahaya 

 dulce." It is smaller, sweeter, but not quite as fine. The 

 pitahaya agria ripens in August and September, the pita- 

 haya dulce shortly before. 



A fruit universally distributed over the Cape Region is 

 the so-called " ciruela " (Crytocarj^a procera). This is 

 is a shrub or small tree which for several months in the 

 year during the rainy season produces enormous masses of 

 small yellow oblong plums, with a single round seed. 

 The fruit is juicy, yellow, and very refreshing, though 

 the flavor is not always fine and rather odd. The seeds 

 contain a very fine kernel, in luy opinion the finest nut I 

 have tasted. Miss Alice Eastwood has called my atten- 

 tion to the fact that this plant belongs to the same family 

 as the Pistacia, and that this will account for the exceed- 

 ingly high flavor of the nut. I have no doubt but that 

 the kernel may be introduced into commerce and be a 

 valuable substitute for the real Pistacia vera. There is a 

 great difference between the various trees of this kind. 

 Some bear very large, well flavored and handsome fruit, 

 others again have small fruit with a decidedly turpentine- 

 like flavor. This tree should be cultivated and improved. 



The ciruela is very common from the sand dunes 

 along the shore to the mountains, where at an elevation 

 of several thousand feet larger trees may be found, some 

 with palatable fruit. 



