490 PARRAS 
Fortunately we brought a little from Cienega Grande, 
or we should have been badly off for fodder. 
December 5th. The country was much the same to- 
day as yesterday, with low hills and valleys alternating, 
and intersected with arroyos which required much care 
in crossing. Passed several cornfields, with which 
exception all was barren and desert-like. At sunset 
reached Vequeria, a hacienda near a spring, twenty- 
five miles from our starting place. As we passed along, 
I noticed many gigantic yuccas growing in the form of 
trees with trunks and branches. 
The different species of yucca, of which frequent 
mention has been made, form a conspicuous feature in 
the vegetation. They present a great variety of foli- 
age, some narrow and grass-like, and others rigid and 
firm enough to serve for a ‘‘Spanish bayonet,” a pop- 
ular name given to the larger kinds. All are furnished 
with a sharp hard point at the end of the leaf, which 
is capable of inflicting a severe wound, and which soon 
teaches the incautious traveller to give them a wide 
berth. While some have no stem at all, others have 
a trunk twenty-five or thirty feet high and from two 
to three feet in diameter. The largest specimens we 
saw were near Parras, where the table-lands are cov- 
ered with them. This species throws out at the top 
ten or a dozen branches which are bent in all possible 
directions. A plain covered with yuccas presents a 
beautiful appearance when in flower with their pure 
white blossoms arranged in pyramidal spikes several 
feet in length. The Mexicans and Indians put the 
different species to various domestic uses. The leaves 
of the narrower kinds are made into baskets, and the 
