144 



THE DESERT 



Their 

 beauty. 



Beauty in 

 character. 



Forms of 

 the yucca 

 and 

 maguey. 



and pretty ? Are you dragging into nature 

 some remembrances of classic art ; and are 

 you looking for the Dionysius face, the 

 Doryphorus form, among these trees and 

 bushes ? If so the desert will not furnish you 

 too much of beauty. But if you mean some- 

 thing that has a distinct character, something 

 appropriate to its setting, something admirably 

 fitted to a designed end (as in art the peasants 

 of Millet or the burghers of Kembrandt and 

 Rodin), then the desert will show forth much 

 that people nowadays are beginning to think 

 beautiful. Mind you, perfect form and perfect 

 color are not to be despised ; neither shall you 

 despise perfect fitness and perfect character. 

 The desert plants, every one of them, have very 

 positive characters ; and I am not certain but 

 that many of them are interesting and beauti- 

 ful even in form and color. 



No doubt it is an acquired taste that leads 

 one to admire grease-wood and cactus ; but can 

 anyone be blind to the graceful form of the 

 maguey, or better still, the yucca with its tall 

 stalk rising like a shaft from a bowl and capped 

 at the top by nodding creamy flowers ? On the 

 mountains and the mesas the sahuaro is so com- 

 mon that perhaps we overlook its beauty of 



