THE GIANT CACTUS. 131 



rather widely apart, like straight pillars ranged along the 

 sides of the valley, but, afterwards, more closely together, 

 and in a different form — namely, that of gigantic cande- 

 labra, of six-and-thirty feet high, which had taken root 

 amonor stones and in clefts of the rocks, and rose in 

 solitary state at various points, 



" This Cereus giganteus, the queen of the cactus tribe, is 

 known in California and New Mexico under the name of 

 Petahaya. The missionaries who visited the country be- 

 tween the Colorado and the Gila, more than a hundred 

 years ago, speak of the fruit of the Petahaya, and 

 of the natives of the country using it for food ; and they 

 also mention a remarkable tree that had branches, but no 

 leaves, though it reached the height of sixty feet, and was 

 of considerable girth The wildest and most in- 

 hospitable regions appear to be the peculiar home of this 

 plant, and its fleshy shoots will strike root, and grow to a 

 surprising size, in chasms in heaps of stones, where the 

 closest examination can scarcely discover a particle of 

 vegetable soil. Its form is various, and mostly depen- 

 dent on its age ; the first shape it assumes is that of an 

 immense club standing upright in the ground, and of 

 double the circumference of the lower part at the top. 

 This form is very striking, while the plant is still only 

 from two to six feet high, but, as it grows taller, the 

 thickness becomes more equal, and when it attains the 

 height of twenty-five feet, it looks like a regular pillar ; 

 after this it begins to throw out its branches. These 

 come out at first in a globular shape, but turn upvv'ard as 



