49 strange forest 



but some very probable guesses can be made. No remains 

 of a saguaro, fossil or otherwise, have ever been found 

 except in this region. By itself that is not very strong evi- 

 dence because fossil cacti of any kind are almost unknov^n. 

 But certain other facts can be added. The cactus is an 

 American family so there can't be much doubt that the 

 saguaro originated in this hemisphere. It is so highly spe- 

 cialized that it will not flourish except under the very 

 special conditions which it finds in this one kind of desert. 

 If it ever colonized a larger area, it must have been one 

 which was at that time almost precisely what the Sonoran 

 Desert is now. And for all these reasons it seems a fairly 

 safe guess that there never were any saguaros in any place 

 very far from where they are now found. 



Look again, therefore, at any one of the thousands to 

 be seen in southern Arizona. Probably nowhere else was 

 one ever seen. They represent about as close an approxi- 

 mation to a "special creation" as one is likely to find. They 

 certainly look improbable, and in a sense they were im- 

 probable — until, for some reason which evolutionists don t 

 even pretend to understand fully, an organism's ability to 

 vary produced at last this strange plant perfectly adapted 

 to the narrowly defined conditions which existed right 

 here. The first known mention of the saguaro is said to 

 be in 1540. Surely the botanical Cortez who first saw it 

 must have felt "a wild surmise." 



Nowadays we are all too familiar with the sad fact that 

 many interesting plants and many interesting animals are 

 "near extinction." Perhaps most people don't care but at 

 least there are some who do. Like Thoreau they may say — 

 and have even stronger reasons than he had for saying 



