OBSTINATE CACTUS BLOSSOMS. 57 



with help of magnifying-glass and tweezers, as 

 many needle-like barbs rankling in her flesh. 

 She may as well have spared herself the trouble. 

 The flowers possess the uncompromising nature 

 of the stock from which they sprung ; they will 

 speedily shut themselves up like buds again 

 I almost believe they close with a snap and 

 obstinately refuse to display their satin dra- 

 peries to delight the eyes of their abductors. 

 This unlovely spirit is not common among Col- 

 orado flowers ; most of them go on blooming in 

 the vase day after day. 



Remarkable are the places in which the 

 flowers are found. Not only are they seen in 

 crevices all the way up the straight side of 

 rocks, where one would hardly think a seed 

 could lodge, but beside the roads, between the 

 horses' tracks, and on the edge of gutters in 

 the streets of a city. One can walk down any 

 street in Colorado Springs and gather a bou- 

 quet, lovely and fragrant, choice enough to 

 adorn any one's table. I once counted twelve 

 varieties in crossing one vacant corner lot on 

 the principal street. 



One of the richest wild gardens I know is a 

 bare, open spot in a cottonwood grove, part of it 

 tunneled by ants, which run over it by millions, 

 and the rest a jumble of bowlders and wild rose- 

 bushes, impossible to describe. In this spot, 



