BOIAXV IX M.\(!.\ZI\i:S. 1S7 



ten feet. Ihese roots, too, are small, but practically innumer- 

 able, and they get e\-ery bit of moisture antl plant food to be 

 had in the territory they cover. 



When the damp season is o\er these roots shrivel up 

 and iinally fall off, the parent cactus, in the meantime, having 

 been entirely destroyed by the sapping of the young plants, 

 rhe first \\ind then picks up these plants and rolling and tum- 

 bling them about like bo\vling balls carries them far over the 

 desert. 



Each one of these young plants, in its turn, settles down 

 at the coming of the next rainy season and reprociuces its 

 kind in a circle around itself, only to die as its parent died. 



In cases of the rootless cactus brought to the fertile lands 

 of the California coast and set out ^vhere they are given 

 plenty of water a peculiar condition results. The parent 

 plant, dying from the constant sapping of the circle of young 

 ones around it, lea\es this circle a hedge of thorns. In turn 

 each one of these dies, lea\'ing the outer segment of a still 

 larger circle, inasmuch as the seed dropped or the rootlets 

 put out will not take hold in the inside of the circle where 

 the life of the parent plant has made the earth sterile. 



1 he result of this is that since the plants in such con- 

 ditions keep on growing all the year round, the single cactus 

 soon becomes a ringed hedge all round the territory in which 

 it was first set out. Such rings in sheltered parts of the 

 ciesert where the ground was a bit less dry ha\"e resulted in 

 endless speculation h\ botanists until the true reason was 

 discovered by the bringing of a few of the plants to the coast 

 experiment stations by tra\elers who had crossed these 

 deserts." 



1 he photograph accompanying this unique sketch rep- 

 resents a bunch of the fruits of the unicorn plant {M tirlyiiiti) 

 and the reckless disregard of truth displayed by the author 

 excites admiration. The actual history of these fruits, their 

 formation, structure, ripening, and transportation by 



