STRAWBERRY CACTUS (Mamillaria Goodridgii, Scheer.). 

 The Mamillarias are little round plants a few inches high, 

 covered with small nipple-like tubercles, each crowned with a 

 tuft of spreading spines. In Mamillaria Goodridgii and some 

 other species the central spine is elongated and bears a hook at 

 the tip. The flowers arise between the tubercles and are 

 small and inconspicuous, white or pinkish in M. Goodridgii, 

 and appear in the spring. The fruit which follows is quite 

 showy, a scarlet, club-shaped berry, and is edible, giving the 

 plant the common name Strawberry Cactus. The hooked 

 spines are responsible for another popular name Fishhook 

 Cactus; and the tubercles that dot the plant have gained it yet 

 another ISipple Cactus, which is really only an English ver- 

 sion of the Latin Mamillaria. 



Ihe Strawberry Cactus is found on the dry hills of San 

 Diego County, California, and southward in Lower California, 

 as well as on the neighboring islands. It affects gravelly or 

 sandy soil, often among rocks, and the flowers are fully open 

 only in sunlight and for a short time. The whitish spines are 

 quite ornamental in their arrangement, radiating in a flat plane 

 about the fsh-hook. 



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