ee The West American Scientist. 
flinging away the small, hard seed (which are passed undigested 
by animals). The meal is then made into large cakes and baked 
in the sun, making a very palatable and nutritious bread. The 
crisp mealy pods are not unpleasant eating for a hungry man, 
and when prepared as above are almost as agreeable as sweet 
cakes. 
The large yield of this tree, which grows in the hottest por- 
tions of our so-called desert lands, in this county, must render it 
worthy cultivation when these regions are further developed. 
Hundreds of bushels of these pods or fruit are now allowed to go 
to waste on the Colorado Desert—sufficient to support a large 
population, and there is but little doubt that in the past history 
of that region large bands of Indians thus derived a part of, if 
not their principal support. Would it be strange if history 
should repeat itself in this instance? 
The mesquite tree grows about twenty feet high, and a grove 
of them, when out of leaf, reminds one of an old New England 
apple orchard in the fall. The leaf is of a delicate green, finely 
divided like most Acacia leaves, and grows easily wherever water 
(even if salt or alkali is held in solution) may be found near, or 
within twenty feet of the surface. The pods are six inches toa 
foot or more in length. The tree seems to require the dry at- 
mosphere of the interior arid regions, for near the coast, in a 
moister atmosphere, it is only a stunted shrub. West of our 
mountains, where it is reached by the sea breezes, the fruit seems 
_to lack almost entirely those qualities, which make it so valuable 
when grown on the desert. The pods are tough, thin, and bit- 
ter, not mealy and sweet. 
The screw bean is less abundant and less valuable in many re- 
spects. The wood of both trees is hard, valuable for fire wood, 
and would be useful in wood work on account of the deep, rich 
coloring. | 3 
Parkinsonia Torreyana, Watson, the alo verde of the Mexi- 
cans, the iron wood (Olneya Tesota, Gray), and Acacia Greggii, 
Gray, are allied trees found growing in the more sterile regions 
of the west and share some of the useful qualities of the mesquite. 
C.R. Orcute. 
ON THE PHOSPHORESCENT SPOTS OF PORICH- 
THYVS MARGARITATUS. 
_ Professor J. S. Kingsley has given a short account of the 
phosphorescent organs of Porichthys margaritatus, describing 
them as constituting a new type. The fact that most of the fishes 
possessing similar organs live in deep water and are therefore 
dead when they reach the surface renders problematical the func- 
tion of their so-called phosphorescent spots; these spots have 
generally been considered to be phosphorescent. The fact that 
