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riBKOUS PLANTS, GROWING IN WESTERX TEXAS. 



Western Texas has a large wealth, of these, which is little 

 known and little appreciated. Its wild mountains, hills, 

 valleys and plains are in many places thickly planted with 

 them, but nature has done the planting. 

 , Of these there are three species of Dasylirion, a genus of 

 the natural order BromeUacea, to which oi'der of plants 

 also belongs the pineapple (Annanas), and our long "gray 

 moss" (Tillandsia), pendent from trees in tlie low cotton 

 country. The Tillandsia is used to make mattresses, called 

 hair mattresses. , , 



To return to the Dasylirion : D. tenuifolia has dagger 

 shaped leaves, from tweilve to eighteen inches long, armed 

 with serrated edges. These leaves are many and near the 

 surface of the ground, and from the center rises the flower 

 stem to the height of six or more feet. This species grows 

 near Dead Man's Hole, on the Pedernalis, also on the head 

 waters of the Guadalupe and on the hills along Devil's 

 river. The two other species of Dasylirion are common 

 throughout a large portion of the region between the Pecos 

 and Rio Grande. They resemble the preceding species, 

 ' but differ in their longer and more numerous leaves, which 

 are often three feet long.- The stem of one of these species 

 is enlarged, cabbage head like, near the surface of the 

 ground, thickly covered with long leaves. I was assured 

 by some Mexicans and others that this head was roasted 

 and eaten as food, and also, that muscal, a whisky-like 

 liquor, was made frOn;i its pnlp, the fermented juice being 

 pressed out. The Apache Indians, who dwelt in the 

 region between Fort Stockton and the Rio Grande, made 

 the same use of this plant, and from this custom one 

 branch, Of the tribe was called Muscallaro-Apaches. At 

 San Salomon springs, on the head waters of tlie Toyah, I 

 was shown the rocky remains of furnaces used by thf 

 Apaches for roasting, for the manufacture of musca], and 

 for food. Such remains are quite common at the old 

 camping grounds of the Indians throughout that country. 



The fibres of the leaves of the Dasylirion have great 

 strength, and they probably are also very durable. An 

 allied plant, Bromelia sagenaria, is used in Brazil for cord- 

 age, and the following is related in proof of the strength 

 0? the cordage made from it : A rope of it had been in 

 constant use during many years upon the wharf of the city 



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