| 
l 
4 
1884.] The Mezquit. 457 
The dissemination of the seed, shut up in the closed pod, is 
always difficult. There are agencies, however, which may trans- 
port pods or seeds at indefinite distances. One is water, rushing 
with great force through many arroyos towards rivers. To it is 
due, in part, the fact that most valleys and bottoms are timbered 
with a large proportion of mezquit. Another is the fæces of horses, 
mules, cows, and native mammals which feed on the pods; they 
always contain the undigested pips in good condition for germi- 
nation. 
Uses—The foliage of the mezquit is practically useless. If at 
times goats or mules are seen to browse it, one may be sure 
there is no other food within reach. I have been told that, on 
the Lower Rio Grande, cows sometimes eat the young leaves in 
the early spring, and that their milk, in consequence, becomes 
bitter and unfit to use. 
The trunk is ordinarily too short, and often too crooked and 
knotty, to make it serviceable as timber. Mezquit posts, much 
used in fencing, are said to be indestructible, whether under or 
above ground. 
I believe this plant is capable of making excellent hedges. 
ings, as mentioned before, are easily raised, and if trans- 
planted in prepared ground during the rainy season, they should, 
in three or four years, develop into vigorous shoots, which, by 
Proper pruning and trimming, will form impenetrable hedges. 
: The wood is very hard, heavy, fine-grained, and takes a beau- 
tiful polish. Longitudinal sections are prettily marked with wavy, 
T veins; the very eccentric rings, although very close, are 
tinct; the serried medullary rays are hardly visible to the 
naked eye. The heart-wood is richly colored, its several zones 
ee from yellowish-red to purple, and contrasts sharply with 
pale yellow of the superficial layers. These qualities render 
mezquit wood valuable for cabinet-work. Unfortunately it too 
happens that the zones of the heart-wood are fissured, de- 
ko or detached from each other, so that it is difficult to get 
; less boards, 7 
Sy San Antonio and Brownsville, Texas, pavement blocks of 
rp are used on several streets, and said to answer the pur- 
excellently well, 
the wood, from both root and stem, is unsurpassed. 
lt is th 
the most commonly used from San Antonio, Texas, to San 
