THE PLANT WOKLD 53 



the association in growth, which made the Eryfhronium and violets 

 ap])ear in close proximity both in time and region. If Mr. Safford 

 would like to know of other names which have been applied to the 

 Er>/fJiro)nnm, he may be interested to read the Bulletin of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club for June, 1900, in which there are quotations from sev- 

 eral of the old herbals, giving the names used in them for this plant. 



Fkedekick H. Blodgett. 



IS THE GIANT CACTUS DOOMED? 



In your January issue you quote from the Phoenix, Arizona, corres- 

 pondent to the New York Siot, as follows : 



" The bringing of water to the arid wastes of Arizona and the con- 

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

 of the strangest plants in the world [Cey^eus giganteus]," etc. 



I cannot but take a different view from that of the Siois corres- 

 pondent. I doubt that we can properly say that the plant is becoming 

 extinct. Where I have seen this gigantic cactus it grows in places where 

 irrigation will always be impossible. In the Gila River Valley, in Arizona, 

 irrigation is extensive, causing the land on either side of the stream to 

 blossom as the rose. But the habitat of the giants is not in the valley. 

 On the high sandy or rocky mesas, and on the sides of dizzy, barren, 

 sun-burnt cliffs and peaks, where irrigation will not only alwaj^s be 

 impracticable but unthought of as well, there must one go to observe the 

 great cactus. 



A few miles north of San Carlos, Arizona, are the peaks called the 

 Triplets ; within their fastnesses the Cereus flourishes in abundance. 

 Four or five miles to the northwest of the station mentioned, may be 

 seen the Flatirons, a series of flat-topped tablelands of limited surface- 

 area. Upon these tablelands, also, the giant makes its home ; and such 

 elevations are common enough in Arizona. In short, one must leave the 

 lower levels, whether irrigated or no, and seek the higher points, in 

 order to see the plant under our consideration. It is true that our 

 observer says " only in spots where w^ater cannot be got can the odd 

 plant be found." But anyone who has visited the southwestern parts 

 of our country need not be told that the " spots where water cannot be 

 got " are quite numerous and of considerable size. Arizona is a mining 

 country and, as such regions usually are, is rough and mountainous ; a 

 very small per cent, of her area will ever be converted into gardens ; and 

 as far as my observations go, the garden-levels are not the natural habitat 

 of the giant cactus. It appears to me that the article in the Sun is a piece 

 of newspaper natural history of the too-common kind. H. Tullsen. 



