Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-03-08

What change since thenl Scores of villages and towns have been estab- ished; farms and ranches have sprung l up as if by magic: the lowing kine and bleating sheep now roam upon the hillsides-in short, the work of civilization has long since begun and is making steady progress, and now we have time to look somewhat closer in to the beauty and usefulness of the magnificent Flora which nature has bestowed upon this Territory with a
 lavish hand.
 In view of the fact that the most
 elaborate and complete works ac-
 companied by very instructive maps,
 issued by the Census bureau since
 1880, fully describe the nature, quan-
 tity and habitat of the trees of Ari-
 zona, I shall not touch upon this sub ject, the more so as my space IS limit
 ed. A few words only of the mesquite
 tree (Prosopis julifora) whose use fulness cannot be overlooked. This tree is found in all the bottom lands of Southern Arizona and here attains sometimes height of over 40 feet, while upon the hills and mesas its
 growth is somewhat stupted. The wood which is very hard, fne-grainsd and of considerable specific weight, IS susceptible of high polish and resists the "tooth Of time" for centuries. As fire wood it may be said to be unsur- passed. The prosopis produces an nually a large crops of pods, usually called mesquite-beans, which furnish
 very nourishing food to the roaming herds of cattle, many of which would
 sometimes perish during the hot sum- mer months when the rainy season
 puts in tardy appearance. This tree belongs to the family of the Mimosae, as also another called palo verde (Mex.) whose trunk, branches and very small
 leaves are, as the name indicates, of a yellowish green. Its pod when fresh
 is also very much appreciated by horses
 and cattle; the taste of the mesquite
 bean is somewhat acid, not unlike
 that of half ripe cherry, while the
 taste of the palo verde pea is almost
 exactly that of half cooked potato.
 The valleys, sandy plains, mesa lands
 and sunny mountain sides Of central
 and especially southern Arizona are covered by innumerable species of the
 Cactaceae, amongst which the most
 conspicuous is the Giant cactus. Ger
 GUS giganteus,) It attains it's greatest
 night on dry sandy lowlapds, where
 quite number of them have been
 found to attain from 50 to 54, and 2
 few even to 60 feet by actual measure
 ment; when well proportioned they
 look like the tall, majestic fute(
 columns of the temples of the ancients and again when surrounded by branch es arranged in a circle around tht mother trunk, they resemble a gigan tic candelabra. The ridges from th' ,, top to the bottom are covered b. stance so that by applying lighte' l match to the bottom of the plant, tn
 entire cactus will i'll a few seconds be
 come pillar of fire. The Apaches hay to my knowledge quite frequentl I made use of this circumstance in thei warfare to exchange signals by nigh a from one war party to another. Wher f by reason of old age, lightning c q other causes the outer pulp of tn Il Cereus begins to peel off and deca. t there appears below a skeleton of lon n poles held together by the flores of tn Q plant forming circle around the ci n conference about two inches insiC Q of the outer skin. These poles, when al 9 are separated, (their weight is excee z. ingly lighD and are used by the natiy