DESERT SCENES IN Z AC ATE CAS 443 



such as grew by a peon's hut in the village of Cedros, and one which was 

 found on the plain near Symon was as grand a tree as an oak of two 

 centuries and probably not much younger. This magnificent palma 

 must have been close to forty feet in height, with a hundred branches 

 which filled out the hemispherical top with symmetry and beauty. 

 The trunk of this palma was near three feet in diameter four feet from 

 the ground, and its thickened base below was not far from six feet 

 across. The flower cluster of this plant is abotit three feet long and the 

 creamy flowers which abound in June are much prized by the people as 

 food. This plant also yields fiber, which, however, is not so generally 

 used as that of its neighbor, owing doubtless to the abundance of the 

 latter, which has longer and more accessible leaves. Some of the other 

 desert plants less conspicuous than the Yuccas are hardly less interest- 

 ing. In numbers the Maguey and its family outrank almost everything 

 else. From Agave americana down to A. lechuguilla and Hechtia they 

 are everywhere abundant. While the huge pulque maguey is found in 

 this region at least only in cultivation, its lesser relatives are on a 

 thousand hills, sometimes leaving little room for anything else to grow. 

 Three species of Agave are abundant. Two of these, A. lechuguilla and 

 A. falcata, are never found on the level plain, but as soon as one begins 

 the ascent of the low ridges which rise but little above the valley he is 

 almost sure to encounter A. lechuguilla. We may say encounter ad- 

 visedly, for their leaves are as so many daggers set at all angles to 

 impale the unwary. The rigid leaves about a foot long are armed with 

 terminal spines as sharp as needles and as strong as nails. These in 

 places, especially on the low limestone ridges, are so numerous that one 

 with difficulty can make his way through. In June this plant is at the 

 height of its flowering season and over large areas the flowering shoots, 

 ten to twelve feet tall, are everywhere conspicuous. The stems of last 

 year have fallen, and the new ones soon ripen their seed and terminate 

 the life of the plant. The leaves of this plant are especially valuable for 

 fiber and it is one of the most important of native Mexican plants. 

 From it the native also obtains amole, the short stem and leaf bases, 

 which, when crushed, has marked saponaceous properties, and seems to 

 justify the esteem in which it is held, if one may judge by results. A. 

 falcata occupies the slopes of the ridges, but is rare as compared with A. 

 lechuguilla. Its flower stalk is smaller on the whole than that of its 

 neighbor and its flowers much darker colored. Its sickle-shaped leaves 

 are pointed inward and it is, therefore, not nearly so unpleasant to meet 

 as Lechuguilla. But its i.ber is little used, probably owing to the 

 scarcity of the plant and the great abundance of the other species 

 which is more easily worked. 



Agave asperrima is one of the plants which the traveler first notices 

 in the desert of Zacatecas. Its bluish-green leaves are usually less than 

 three feet in length as it grows in the desert, but are sharply armed 



