12 THE PLANT WORLD 



two rows met. The common name of tlie plant tlien flashed upon my 

 mind. Could it be that "Dog's-tooth " was suggested by their resem- 

 blance to the teeth of a dog? Linnaeus undoubtedly took the specific 

 name deiis-canis from a common name. I looked up the word in a 

 German etymological dictionary. There I found that rfer Hundzalin is 

 a plant growing in warm countries, with ziviebelar tiger, zaTinaehnliclier 

 Wurzel. This was evidently intended as an explanation of the name. 

 The root is indeed zwiebel-artig ; but I do not think that any stretch of 

 tiie imagination one could call it zahn-aehnlich. On the other hand, it 

 required no suggestion on my part to those who saw my specimens to 

 recognize the resemblance of the seed to animal teeth. 



Here, then, it seems to me, is the explanation of the much decried 

 misnomer for the Erythroniams. The German name was without the 

 " violet " appended, which in all probability was given to it on account 

 of the nodding flower. June will soon be here again, and those of your 

 readers who are interested in the common names of plants may easily 

 verify my discovery. W. E. Saffgrd. 



A WONDERFUL PLANT DOOMED. 



The bringing of water to the arid wastes of Arizona and the conse- 

 quent evolution from desert to garden is causing the extinction of one 

 of the strangest plants in the world. At a recent session of the terri- 

 torial legislature the Cereus giganteus, the great cactus, better known as 

 the saguara and peculiar to the soil of this territory, was made the 

 official flower of Arizona. Not many years will elapse before a new 

 choice will be necessary. 



Wlien the first Franciscan fathers journeyed north from Mexico 

 into Arizona they carried back reports of the great cactus which cov- 

 ered the plains of the new country, and told about its food value to the 

 Indians. Now, as the art of the American has reclaimed, foot by foot, 

 the former desert, and the magic water has made orange, peach and 

 apricot orchards and great fields of alfafa, the saguara has been driven 

 out, and only in spots where water cannot be got can the odd plant be 

 found. 



On the rocky, gravelly mesas, the saguaras, the largest of the cactus 

 family, point their candelabrum-like arms straight toward the sky, not 

 infrequently reaching a height of sixty feet. The body of tlie saguara, 

 sometimes two feet in thickness, is composed of thin pieces of porous 

 wood, arranged in the form of a Corinthian column, covered and held 

 together by the outside fibres of pale green. At some distance from 

 the ground large branches put out, while the whole surface is covered 

 with sharp, prickly thorns. A large white, sometimes purple, blossom 



