448 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A Desert Landscape in Zacatecas. I'hoto by F. E. Lloyd. 



among horses and cattle. The animals nosing about among the 

 branches of this plant for some tuft of grass or other morsel, dislodge 

 the glochids and get them in their eyes. Every well-appointed door- 

 yard or garden has one or more species of the cultivated cactus which 

 produces edible fruits of which the Mexican is very fond. These are of 

 many varieties, differing in the characters of the branches and the 

 fruits, the latter varying in color from the deepest red to lemon color 

 and in form entirely distinct. They form a very important item in the 

 short list of foods upon which the poorer classes live. 



In this desert region one can not but be impressed with the number 

 and variety of the woody plants, shrubs and small trees, which are to be 

 seen on every hand. Many of these are common in our own southwest 

 — mezquite, ocotillo, creosote bush, Ephedra, Condalia, Koeberlinia, 

 species of Atriplex and Acacia are among the most conspicuous, some 

 are the same species and others different, and the less obvious things are, 

 Lippia, Buddleia, Mortonia and many others. In all these the families 

 of the Leguminosse, Labiatae and Compositse are especially prominent, 

 as they are elsewhere in desert regions. The shrubby growth gives color 

 to the landscape, and in many places its whole aspect and character is 

 due to these plants more than to the yuccas, agaves or cacti. Very 

 few trees in this desert are more than fifteen feet high and the majority 

 of them are much less, so that in no sense does the country seem 

 wooded, except upon the highest ranges where pines and oaks occur. 



Among these desert shrubs are some of unusual beauty. There is 



