82 PACIFIC STATES FLORAL CONGRESS. 



CACTI AND THEIK CULTUKE. 



BY MRS. HENRY P. TRICOU. 



With all that has been written and read by our members on the 

 wild flowers of our state, no one has thought of the cactus, which certainly 

 occupies an important place among the wild flora of California growing 

 in the desert regions. Nearly all cacti are native of America, and, it 

 seems to me, ought to be our national flower. 



These interesting plants require but little care, and live for many 

 years, the number of flowers increasing with the age of the plant. Their 

 greatest attraction consist in curious and odd formations, variously - 

 colored spines, and often enormous flowers of great substance and beauty, 

 charming us with their brilliant colors and delightful perfumes. There 

 is nothing in plant life that presents so striking an appearance as a well- 

 arranged collection of cacti. 



From an article in a southern journal I quote the following: "All 

 cacti have strange and interesting shapes; nearly all have showy and 

 exquisitely-beautiful flowers, and many bear fruit which is by no means 

 to be despised. Nowhere in the vegetable kingdom (not even among 

 the orchids) is it possible to make so large an assemblage of such dis- 

 similar forms within the same family from 1 inch to 60 feet, from the 

 size of a carriage whip to that of a barrel, from the slender ucatilla to 

 the'angular opuntia, from the fairy's pincushion to the hirsute grizzly 

 bear, and so on indefinitely." And again: "Any one who has ever seen 

 southern Arizona bewitched by the first rains and turned from gray 

 sand to a living carpet of tiny wild flowers, starred here and there with 

 the gorgeous blossoms of the cacti, knows one of the most wonderful 

 sights in nature, while the lives of thousands of animals have been liter- 

 ally saved by those strange vegetable water tanks in the land of thirst. 

 Every cactus is a reservoir, born and bred amid universal drought; it 

 stores moisture for its own needs, and is often the salvation of its ani- 

 mate superiors. Many a prospector, lost in the desert, would have 

 perished miserably but for this cooling pulp." 



Families of Cacti. Cacti are divided into several families, according 

 to the characteristics of the many varieties, as manner of growth of 

 stems, whether upright, clinging, or trailing, round, oval, or globose, 

 have long, broad, or hairy-like spines, grow singly or in clusters, or 

 flat-stemmed, have tubular or stem flowers. 



The principal families are Cereus Echinocactus, Echinocereus, 

 Echmopsis, Analonium, Mamilaria, Rhipsalis, Epiphyllum, Melocactus, 

 Filocereus, and Phyllocactus. 



