CHOICE OF FLOWERS 



greenhouse. Wherein the orchid Is not unhke 

 the cactus. The phmt children of the desert 

 were a fad of mine, for a while. I spent more 

 than I had a right to do in rare and odd speci- 

 mens, and with one or two exceptions they died 

 without flowering. The exceptions died just 

 afterward. It was quite an experience to see 

 them do it. And when you observe that in Ari- 

 zona they live through everything, the heat of a 

 rolling-mill, the drought of the desert, the chill 

 of a northern winter, the calm of a cellar, the 

 gale of an open sea, to say nothing of the prey- 

 Ings and nibblings of animals and Insects, it Is 

 hard to understand why they should behave so 

 ungratefully on our shelves and In our houses, 

 but I suspect it is that they are treated too well, 

 and have too much food and too much water. 

 I found that cacti did the best In a rockery — to 

 dignify a little stone heap by that name — for 

 perched in niches on this monument, such mois- 

 ture as they received ran quickly off, leaving 

 them as dry as ever when the sun came out, and 

 that is what they insist upon. They live a stren- 

 uous life, and when they have all that you sup- 

 pose they have been asking, they sicken of a 

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