12 
BOTANY. 
ments. We passed through this valley from the 1st to the 20th February, when the weather 
was warm and genial, as in the month of May in the Atlantic States. 
The seasons appear to be two or three weeks earlier here than at the Mojave village in the 
Colorado \ r alley. We were unable to determine from observation whether the soil here can he 
cultivated without irrigation, because we had not time to make any experiments on this subject 
in our rapid reconnoissance. From the fact that the Mojave Indians, hut a short distance 
further west in the Colorado valley, cultivate corn, wheat, beans, pumpkins, melons, and 
probably other culinary vegetables, without irrigation, one can have little doubt hut that the 
same may he done also in this valley. Should this prove to be true, there are several places, 
especially in the vicinity of White Cliff creek, which will be of great importance on this 
account. The valley here spreads out to quite a wide space, and is, moreover, convenient 
to good timber near Aztec Pass, besides the cotton-wood and mezquite in its own immediate 
valley. 
This may emphatically he called the region of Cacti of our route. One of the first of them 
that we found after entering this valley was the Echinocactus Wislizeni of Dr. Engelmann, called 
by the Mexicans “visnada,” the juice of which is said to serve as a substitute for water when 
it cannot otherwise he procured. Instances have been known among the white trappers of this 
wild region, where the lives of men have been saved by this plant. On the morning of Feb¬ 
ruary 3, we found one of them left by the Yampai Indians, who had been on the ground the 
previous night. The spines were burned, and two-thirds of the inside were scooped out so as to 
form a sort of kettle. Mr. Leroux informed us that they scoop a space of its centre, introduce 
other vegetables, and with the introduction of heated stones cook the whole together. These 
vegetable boilers are not transported from one camp to the other, but, on account of their abun¬ 
dance, new ones are formed at every camping ground where they are required. A Cereus was 
recognised to-day, very nearly akin, if not the same, as one that is very common around El 
Paso, ( Cer. cldoranthus Engl, ined.,) and heretofore only known in that region. We were unable 
to get its flower or fruit to compare with the El Paso plant, which was much to be regretted, as 
the spines of these plants vary so much as to form by themselves but poor distinctive charac¬ 
teristics of the species. There also was found a globose mamillaria, with from one to three 
or four central-hooked spines. It differs from the one collected on the Pecos, by its red clavate 
fruit. We noticed also a new arborescent opuntia, very nearly allied to O. arborescens, the last 
of which we saw at the ruins near the Pueblo de Zuni. This plant differs from that in having 
spiney fruit and a larger seed, but in other respects it resembles it very much. The beautiful 
scarlet-berried Op. frutescens was found in this region. It was collected also at Laguna 
Colorado, sixty miles east of the Rio Pecos, showing it to have a wider geographical range than 
the 0. arborescens , which is supposed by Dr. Engelmann to be the widest diffused of all North 
American cacti. In addition to those already mentioned, we gathered a beautiful Opuntia, 
common in this region and quite different from any we had heretofore seen. It is a flat-jointed, 
spineless variety, growing in a handsome rosette manner, and covered with a beautiful velvety 
bloom or pubescence. The minute barbed bristles of the pulvilli are very annoying when 
handled. It is even said to be destructive to the eye if permitted to touch that delicate organ. 
By far the most interesting cactus of this region, and probably of the whole world, is the 
Cereus giganteus. We saw it for the first time, in this valley, on the 4th of February, growing 
about forty-five feet high ; but along the valley of the Grila, it is said to reach sixty feet in 
height. It frequently occurs from twenty-five to thirty feet high without a single branch. 
Among the skeletons of wood, after the fleshy parts of the plant had decayed and fallen away, 
we observed in the old trees a perfect net-work of the bundles of woody fibres, reticulated on a 
large scale, exactly after the manner of the woody fibres of the Opuntia arborescens. Our obser¬ 
vations do not accord fully with the account given by Drs. Engelmann and Parry, 1 who had 
1 Silliman’s Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts, Yol. XIY, Nov., 1852. 
