THE NEW OPUNTIAS 



another beauty of flower and form, from an- 

 other abundance of fruitage, from another 

 prodigious powers of growth, from another 

 intense persistence, from another adaptability, 

 from another hardiness. From them all he has 

 moulded the new plant, fashioning it through 

 long patient years of care and toil and physical 

 discomfort, — for the work among the wild 

 cacti, and particularly the pollenating, is ac- 

 complished in the midst of sharp pain, the 

 thorns inevitably working their way into the 

 fingers and causing much distress, — often in- 

 terrupted by discouragements and blocked by 

 many failures, but always pressing on with 

 supreme devotion and an unconquerable con- 

 fidence in the final outcome. While out of 

 the thousands of crosses that have been made 

 many strange and fearsome plants have come, 

 intensifying with pagan persistence their devo- 

 tion to the gods of pain and misrule, yet 

 steadily the nobler traits have predominated 

 until the long-sought end has been reached. 

 Six new opuntias have been produced as a 

 Iresult of all these twelve years of labor, thorn- 

 less save in one or two instances, where the 

 thorns or spicules are so insignificant as to be 



