"141 °"^ every single one of them is right 



almost as profuse in the desert. Water storage in a thick 

 stem works very well not only for the saguaro but also for 

 the great and very common barrel cactus, which, as I have 

 said before, really does hold enough water in its pulp to 

 save a human life in desperate cases. But that is no reason 

 why gourds and the queen of the night shouldn't go in for 

 underground tubers instead. Thus nature: 



. . . fulfills herself in many ways 



Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. 



Most people whose experience has been limited to cul- 

 tivated flowers and vegetables think a seed is something 

 you put into the ground, water a little if necessary and con- 

 fidently expect to come up. But a desert seed, like every- 

 thing else about a desert plant, is peculiar. Plant it care- 

 fully, water it or not as you please, wait patiently and, 

 four times out of five, nothing at all happens. Dig it up 

 six months or even a year later and, as often as not, it 

 looks precisely as it did when you put it in the ground. In 

 fact it does not look as though it had been planted. 



Newcomers who have had this experience — and I was 

 one of them — feel aggrieved. Native plants, they think, 

 ought to grow easily. They have been seen flourishing un- 

 attended in the most unpromising-looking spots. What 

 perversity has induced them to refuse to grow where you 

 want them to? 



Actually, of course, and even in temperate climates, 

 wild plants are often much more diflBcult to grow than 

 tame ones. One of the reasons why the latter are culti- 

 vated is just that they are, or have been trained to be, rela- 

 tively undemanding. And that really ought not surprise 



