TREES AND TREE-LIKE GROWTHS 51 



feature is the suddenness with which, on the coming 

 of the rains, it changes from dead, dry gray to Hving 

 green. Small leaves appear as if by magic and feather 

 the canes with vivid green. The canes themselves 

 become a delicate lavender; even the thorns put on 

 a half-inviting look and entice the unwary to closer 

 acquaintance. Then a flower-spike starts from the 

 tip of each cane, and bursts into a flame-like tongue 

 a foot or so long, made up of scores of tubular scarlet 

 and yellow blossoms. 



I have been told that the flowers of the ocotillo 

 are used as food by some of the desert Indians. I 

 tried them once, but failed to find them attractive. 

 But I had no recipe: perhaps they should be served 

 with a tarantula sauce, or stewed with lizards' tails. 



The giant cactus, Cereus giganteus (Spanish sa- 

 guaro), is a common object of the Arizona deserts, 

 but in California is only represented to the extent 

 of a few individuals, probably not many over a 

 hundred all told, that have gained a footing on the 

 western bank of the Colorado. It, too, is an abnormal 

 plant, but not an ugly one. Indeed, it is beautiful 

 in an outlandish kind of way, but so far is it removed 

 from all the shapes that we think of as trees that it 

 might be a type of vegetation belonging to Mars or 

 the moon. 



Ordinarily the saguaro, for ten or fifteen feet of 

 its height, is a single dark-green column, regularly 

 ridged or fluted, and set with rosettes of spines. Then 

 it sends out arms, one or very few, which stand up 

 parallel with the main stem ; or it may divide into 

 a number of equal branchings, taking the form of 



