THE CACTUS 99 



and supply succulent food for herbivorous ani- 

 mals where now little but sagebrush grows was 

 to be solved, it would be necessary, I thought, to 

 hybridize the already well known, partially 

 spineless species of cactus with the large-grow- 

 ing, spiny ones. There seemed reason to hope 

 that a reassortment of heriditary characters 

 might be brought about, such as we have seen, 

 for example, in the case of thornless black- 

 berry and stoneless plum among other plant 

 developments. 



Thus the qualities of size and succulence of 

 the Opuntia might perhaps be combined with the 

 smooth skin of the smaller, partially spineless 

 species. 



The hope that it might be possible to effect 

 such a transformation through hybridization was 

 abundantly justified. In due time such a new 

 race was developed, a gigantic cactus, overtop- 

 ping all its known ancestors in size, and sur- 

 passing them all in succulence of flesh, producing 

 fruit of unpredicted excellence in almost unbe- 

 lievable quantity, and having a surface as smooth 

 as the palm of your hand. Such a plant was 

 produced as the result of hybridizing experi- 

 ments, followed up and supplemented by the 

 usual methods of rigid selection. But the result 

 was not achieved with the small cacti referred 



