The Prosopis Juliflora.
1833. We found the river skirted with very wide bottoms, thick-set with the musquito trees, which bear a pod in the shape of a bean, which is exceedingly sweet.—‘Narrative of J. O. Pattie,’ p. 59 (Cincinnati).
1834. The valley was here wider, and was full of small hills interspersed with mezquite bushes, that is, a kind of prickly green locust bush, which bears long narrow beans in bunches, of a very pleasant and sweet taste.—Albert Pike, ‘Sketches,’ &c. p. 56 (Boston).
1846. In the plain grows mezquite and other shrubbery.—A. Wislizenus, ‘Tour in N. Mexico’ (1848), p. 48. (Stanford Dict.)
1847. Our road went mostly through fine mezquite timber.—Id., p. 69.
1851. Here and there, mingled with the cacti, are trees of acacia and mezquite—the denizens of the desert land.—Mayne Reid, ‘The Scalp Hunters,’ p. 11. (N.E.D.)
1851. We travelled through a desert country, here and there covered with wild sage and mezquite [grass].—Id., p. 146.
1857. The country was much more wooded than yesterday, frequent mottes of live-oak, coppices of mesquit, and forests of post-oak, diversifying the prairie.—Olmsted, ‘Journey through Texas,’ p. 238 (N.Y.).
1878. The thorny mezquit alone can be said to adorn the landscape, and the region can only be crossed at the risk of death from thirst.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 488. (Italics in the original.)
