CACTUS AND GEBA8E-WOOD 



141 



Tree, bush, plant and grass — ^great and small 

 alike — each has its sting for the intruder. You 

 can hardly Stoop to pick a desert flower or pull a 

 bunch of small grass without being aware of a 

 prickle on your hand. Nature seems to have 

 provided a whole arsenal of defensive weapons 

 for these poor starved plants of the desert. 

 Not any of the lovely growths of the earth, 

 like the lilies and the daffodils, are so well de- 

 fended. And she has given them not only 

 armor but a spirit of tenacity and stubbornness 

 wherewith to carry on the struggle. Cut out 

 the purslain and the iron weed from the garden 

 walk, and it springs up again and again, con- 

 tending for life. Put heat, drouth, and ani- 

 mal attack against the desert shrubs and they 

 fight back like the higher forms of organic life. 

 How typical they are of everything in and about 

 the desert. There is but one word to describe 

 it and that word — fierce — I shall have worn 

 threadbare before I have finished these chapters. 



We have not yet done with enumerating the 

 defenses of these plants. The bushes like the 

 grease-wood and the sage have not the bulk of 

 body to grow the thorn. They are too slight, 

 too rambling in make-up. Besides their reser- 

 voirs are protected by being in their roots under 



The sfmg 0/ 

 fiowerB, 



Fierceness 

 0/ the plant. 



