106 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



places for its home. It may frequently be found basking in the 

 sun on the crests of the exposed rocks, rooting in soil so thin 

 that it is a perennial wonder how it lives at all. In such 

 rock situations it seems scarcely in keeping with the scene. 

 No matter how often it is passed its unusual form seldom be- 

 comes completely blended with the other vegetation. But 

 in the "sand barrens" of Long Island and New Jersey it 

 gives the finishing touches to the picture of barrenness, sprawl- 

 ing over the hot sand in places where nothing else will grow. 



Many of those who chance to find this plant, take the 

 flat joints of the stem for leaves. The real leaves are seldom 

 noticed. They are thin narrow, scale-like structures that ap- 

 pear of little use to the plant and soon fall away. From their 

 axils are commonly produced small spines or bristles which 

 protect the plant from grazing animals. All the functions of 

 leaves are performed by the stems. 



The cactus understands how to reduce living to its sim- 

 plest terms. It is as if it had withdrawn both leaves and 

 branches inside its trunk, resolved to take everything serene- 

 ly. In the place of bark, the stem is covered with a thick 

 epidermis that is slow to part with the moisture entrusted to 

 it, let the sun shine as hot, or the wind blow as cold, as it will. 

 It lives slowly, like a toad. 



The flowers appear in June from the edges of the flat 

 .5tems. They are among the handsomest blooms that the bar- 

 rens produce, being yellow in color, with numerous petals and 

 stamens like other cactus flowers, but with considerable re- 

 semblance to the water lily. No two flowers, however, could 

 be further apart in disposition and habits. They divide fire 

 and water between them and each is supreme in its own 

 element. For the lily, water; for the cactus, sand and sun. 

 In similar fashion they divide the hours, the lily's day ends as 

 the prickly pear's begins. 



The flowers are succeeded by dull red. pear-shaped fruits 



