Volume 9 Number 12 



The Plant World 



SI ;fHag:a^tnr of popular ^otanp 

 DECEMBER, 1906 



THE TOUAIEY CACTUS GARDEN.* 



By Professor J. J. Thounber, 



Unii'crsity of .Arizona. 



The Tourney Cactus Garden is one of the most unique features 

 to be found on the grounds of the university at Tucson, Arizona. 

 However tame and insignificant it may appear to the native who 

 is acquainted with boundless areas of hke plants, the garden 

 represents to the botanist a group of most interesting species 

 growing under essentially the same natural conditions that have 

 contributed for ages to their present highly specialized adaptations. 

 It is not too much to state that outside of the southwest the main- 

 tainance of so representative a collection of xeroph)tes is im- 

 possible in our country, except at enormous expense. 



Planting in this garden was begun during the years 1 894-1 895 

 by Professor James W. Toumey, then botanist of the Arizona 

 Experiment Station. Its location on the university grounds 

 is nearly central, being immediately in front of the main uni- 

 versity building and adjacent to the principal approach from the 

 west. In general outline it is heart-shaped, and in area some- 

 what less than an acre. In addition to the rather prominent loca- 

 tion which it enjoys, it is rendered more striking by the contrast 

 which obtains between its spiny, and for the most part, leafless 

 desert forms and the refreshing green lawns, shrubs and trees 



* Illustralions, by courtesy of the Popular Science Monthly, from an 

 article by Professor F. E. Lloyd, entitled " A Botanical Laboratory in the 

 Desert," February, 1905. 



