A PRICKLY POINT

Bob Sipchen’s review of Charles Bowden’s “Mezcal” (Book Review, Jan. 8) mistakenly calls the agave (the source of the potent liquor which gives the book its title) a cactus. The heading, “A Taste of Cactus,” is also wrong. The distinct Agave family, which includes the snowdrop and the amaryllis, are all succulents. In the Sonoran Desert, visitors tend to call everything a cactus, including the yucca and the ocotillo. All have uses, practical, ornamental, and nutritional, and most have thorns. The Mexicans call the agave the lechuguilla . A notable collection of them all may be seen in the Huntington Botanical Garden, although I doubt that mezcal is served in the Library’s tea room.

LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL

TUCSON