GNETACEAE 



If in the future strains of this and other Ephedras can be found 

 or developed which contain the active principle Ephedrine in com- 

 mercial quantities they can well be expected to become commercial 

 crops in our warmer regions. 



^Ephedra viri dis , Morm.on Tea. This is one of our best native 

 Ephedras. it has a wide range but reaches its optimum development 

 in the Eavajo region north and west of the Carrizozo Mountains. Here 

 it covers thousands of acres where it has taken advantage of condi- 

 tions of grazing adverse to other plants. It is not hard to conceive 

 what this country would be like without this and the prickly muhly. 

 It would be like vast areas to the cast — merely bare rock. This 

 plant supplies abundant forage for sheep and seems to thrive under 

 abuse. 



Han;/ references can be found to the uses made of this and 

 other native Ephedras as medicine. Tests have shown that they con- 

 tain no Ephedrine, Can it be that tests ended here? Plants so uni- 

 versally used must contain some active principle worth the effort 

 to locate and study. 



Other native Ephedras of the Southwest which seem to be in- 

 ferior to E. viridis but which should be studied when a real attempt 

 to locate Tahe* active" principle of these plants is made, are E, 

 ant i syp hi 1 it io a , E, ncvadonsis, E. trif u rea and E. torrcyana. These 

 are all generally known as Mormon Tea. 



EINACEAE 



* Juni per u s paehyphloea, Alligator Baric Juniper. The part the 

 junipers should play in our erosion control program is somewhat of 

 o riddle. The part they arc playing is evident to anyone who ob- 

 serves as he travels. The juniper trees already occupy millions of 

 acres which if the land were not thus occupied, would at present be 

 barren and windswept. All attempts at exploiting our woodlands 

 type cither in the pretense of establishing farms or grass areas, 

 should be studied with avowed prejudice in favor of the existing 

 trees. The utilization of wood and pests is legitimate but it should 

 guarantee a similar cover to return. The juniper forests are an 

 enormous source of revenue; the trees protect the land against 

 rapid erosion of water and wind and with proper grazing permit the 

 growth of an abundant grass cover. The juniper twigs arc browsed 

 by game animals and deer, particularly, fatten on the berries when 

 they fall. The fruits of pa c hy ph 1 oca and J. mono s perms- have been 

 utilized by Indians for food. In many of our sMfcll towns juniper 

 is the chief fuel wood on the market. A general plan of planting 

 juniper, however, seems to be uncalled for. Properly managed, the 



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