Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/450

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are destined to bear the small triangular fruits that often remain the following winter on the stalk that bore them.

This plant, besides being one of the most attractive of the whole desert flora, is not without its uses, both legitimate and otherwise. From the leaves of sotol the natives weave mats and various other articles of utility. They split the long leaves into narrow strips which they weave into hats. But this plant, like the maguey, also furnishes food and drink. The central cabbage-like bud is cooked and eaten. This central bud, and the thick top of the stem below it, are used much in the manufacture of a fiery liquor called Sotól, of rank intoxicating power.

While the plants above cited are striking and characteristic features of this desert vegetation, yet even more common and more characteristic of deserts in general are the cacti, which abound in species and individuals. Cactus, Echinocactus, Cereus, Echinocereus, Mamillaria and Opuntias of both divisions are everywhere. Down on the open plain the nopals (Platopuntias) abound, as one soon discovers who tries to ride across country. The broad flat joints of these plants are everywhere. Here and there a cluster of bisnaga colorada (Echinocactus pilosus) shows the top of its cylindrical body bristling with red spines above the low bushes, for this bisnaga, as the native calls it, does not grow very tall, five feet being about its maximum. It blooms in June and successions of yellow fruits follow the flowers. These lemon-yellow fruits about the size of a lime are possessed also of the lime's acid