n6 PICTURING MIRACLES 



In working with cacti one becomes very much at- 

 tached to them on account of their wonderfully 

 beautiful and often extraordinary blossoms. Often a 

 tiny plant, not as large as a small hen's egg, will have 

 a bud shoot up from it and a blossom larger than 

 your fist of most exquisite texture and color, more 

 delicate than the orchid, larger flowers than the iris 

 and of more beautiful coloring than the rose. Flow- 

 ers of the Epiphyllums, a foot across, with colors and 

 shades not found in any other one family of plants 

 the spines sometimes rival the feathers of the Bird 

 of Paradise, often eight inches long, curved or dag- 

 ger-shaped. The buds usually take two or three days 

 to open, making what look like false starts, opening 

 part way and closing, then a little wider the next 

 day, and usually wide open the third day. Often the 

 petals, almost like a butterfly's wing, flutter when 

 they are wide open, not noticeably to the eye, but 

 the unerring lapse-time camera registers some very 

 interesting movements. The blossoms often live two 

 or three days before they fade. 



In the Cereus, there are many, many kinds, but 

 our fondest memories of them go back to Honolulu 

 and the hedge at the Punahou School where some 

 nights 5,000 of them can be counted. My first ex- 

 perience was unique. We had arrived by ship the day 

 before, our car loaded with cameras, microscope mo- 



