148 LUTHER BURBANK 



No favorite garden flower can outdo this 

 ungainly monster of the desert, when in bloom, 

 in the seductiveness of its advertisements put 

 forth to attract insects. 



When summer comes, and the insects have 

 paid, by the services rendered, for the honey 

 taken, the nest of fertile eggs beneath each 

 cactus blossom begins to grow into a more or less 

 luscious fruit. 



In this cactus fruit there is a sweetness which 

 makes the fruit as tempting as that of the straw- 

 berry, raspberry, banana, or orange. Its outer 

 covering, in some of the improved varieties, is as 

 beautiful and varied as that of the apple or the 

 peach. 



Thus, in the springtime, the cactus, like the 

 cherry, advertises to the friendly insects to bring 

 its offspring new heredities, and in the fall it 

 advertises to the friendly birds to carry off its 

 seed and plant it where its young may have the 

 advantages of new environment. 



In its brilliant flowers and tempting fruit we 

 read its receptiveness to the friendship of the 

 birds and bees. 



Those spines and flowers and fruits tell us 

 that, while its ancestors were fighting a common 

 foe, they still found time to build up lasting part- 

 nerships. 



