THE TOUMEY CACTUS GARDEN. 275 



manv of the older plants have grown to several times their orig- 

 inal size. In addition to the cactaceae there are in the garden 

 other equally interesting xerophytes — the agaves, yuccas, the 

 sotol, ocotillo, creosote bush, and palo verde.* 



The saguaro or giant cactus {Cereus giganteits) is easily the 

 most striking plant, and is, perhaps, the best known to the visitor, 

 so far as it is possible for one to become acquainted with plants 

 through literature. The larger of the specimens in the garden 

 are about fifteen feet high and as yet unbranched, though in the 

 foothills about Tucson mature candelabrate branched ones thirty 

 feet or more in height are very common. 



The rather large cream-white flowers of the saguaro are pro- 

 duced in abundance toward the tips of the spiny, fluted, column- 



FiG. 46. Saguaro flower and fruit cut longitudinallj'. 



like trunks during portions of j\Iay and June. The fruit, which 

 is ovate and about the size of a hen's egg, begins to mature early 

 in July, the ripe ones dehiscing from above, thus exposing to the 

 birds' delight their juicy, crimson though somewhat inciped con- 

 tents, studded with many small black seeds. At this stage the 

 fruit with its split, reflexed pericarp, the inner wall of which is 

 also bright red, suggests to one a showy pomegranate flower. 

 In passing it will be interesting to note that the saguaro flower 

 was adopted as the territorial flower by a recent Arizonian legis- 

 lature. 



The ocotillo, candle flower, or coach-whip cactus {Fouquiera 

 splendens) is another equally interesting and distinctively south- 

 western species. It is abundant enough in most of the foothill 



* For a description of the palo verde see Plant World, vol. 9, no. 

 7, July, 1906, p. 165. 



