white "petals" are not petals at all; they are 

 sterile florets, gaily bedecked in white, waving 

 a welcome to the passing bees and butterflies, 

 whom they invite to the feast which the yellow 

 florets have prepared for them. Like all other 

 progressive flowers, the daisy has designed 

 ways to insure itself the boon of cross-fertili- 

 zation. The two arms of the pistil are kept 

 tightly closed until the pollen is gone; then 

 they open up and become sticky, so that the bee 

 which comes their way from another blossom 

 must leave with them some of the grains of 

 pollen it has gathered elsewhere. 



THE SEGO LILY 



(Calochortus nuttallii Torr. and Gr.) 



Utah's floral queen belongs to the tulip 

 branch of the lily family. It has a remarkable 

 list of relatives, good, bad, and indifferent, 

 close and distant. These kinsfolk range from 

 the evil-smelling carrion flower to the delight- 

 fully fragrant lily-of-the-valley ; from the gor- 

 geous and assertive butterfly tulip to the timid, 

 unassuming fairy bell; from the poisonous 

 sego and the hog potato to the edible comass 

 and the soap-like amole (see page 512). 



The sego lily is a variety of the mariposa 

 tulip. Its flower is about two inches across, 

 and its white petals are tinged sometimes with 

 yellowish green and sometimes with lilac. The 

 flowers usually follow individual taste in color- 

 ings and wear a wide range of the prettiest 

 gowns imaginable. 



Mariposa in Spanish means butterfly, and the 

 members of the mariposa group of flowers, to 

 which the sego lily belongs, are marvelous in 

 their hues and delightful in their imitation of 

 the decorative patterns and color combinations 

 of their insect friends. 



A visitor to the big trees of the Mariposa 

 Grove relates how she found a bed of sego 

 lilies in which, upon close examination, she dis- 

 covered fourteen distinct markings, the flowers 

 resembling so many butterflies with wings out- 

 spread for flight, their rich color glistening in 

 the sun. 



The sego lily was even more to the early 

 Mormon church in Utah than was the may- 

 flower to the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The may- 

 flower was the springtime's first harbinger and 

 a blossom of hope; the sego lily was not only 

 early on the scene to gladden a somewhat 

 dreary landscape, but its roots proved edible. 

 The followers of Brigham Young looked upon 

 it in somewhat the same light as the Jews 

 looked upon the manna that saved them dur- 

 ing their wanderings in the wilderness. There- 

 fore the sego lily has figured largely in the 

 history of the Mormon Church in Utah and 

 has been accorded the distinction of State 

 flower as a proof of the early settlers' grati- 

 tude. 



THE SAHUARO 



(Carnegiea gigantea [formerly known as 



Cereus giganteus] (Engelm.) Britton 



and Rose) 



When the legislature of Arizona selected the 

 column cactus, known to laymen as the sa- 



huaro, as the State flower, it chose a repre- 

 sentative which for tenacity and ability to live 

 under stressful conditions is unsurpassed. The 

 sahuaro grows so as sometimes to resemble an 

 upstanding Brobdingnagian cucumber and at 

 others to look like a huge green candelabra. 

 It thrives on the mountain slopes where other 

 plants cannot survive the shortage of moisture, 

 rearing its thick, cylindrical branches straight 

 up into the air as high as 40 feet. These are 

 armed with rows of spines arranged in star 

 shapes, and in May and June bear exquisite 

 whitish, waxlike flowers, perfect in form and 

 opening in the daytime (see page 513). 



We always think it wise to save for a "rainy" 

 day; but paradoxical as it may sound, the 

 "rainy" day of the cactus is the day when it 

 fails to rain for a long time. So it has ar- 

 ranged its household economy for "making 

 hay" while the rain falls. In wet weather it 

 converts itself into a sort of green-hued 

 sponge, drinking up great stores of water. It 

 long ago suppressed the last vestige of a leaf, 

 and in lieu thereof has covered itself with a 

 thick, hard, impervious coating which some- 

 times has a grayish bloom on the surface. In 

 other species the coating is covered by a mass 

 of thick hairs. In this way it is able to pre- 

 vent evaporation of its moisture under the 

 fiercest sun and calmly to await new supplies. 

 It is indeed the vegetable counterpart of the 

 camel. 



We think of the cacti as unfriendly, yet the 

 birds often find them a refuge. Woodpeckers 

 make holes in the sahuaro for their nesting 

 places. Other small birds of the arid regions 

 move in when the woodpeckers move out. One 

 of these is a small owl, said to be the tiniest 

 of all members of the owl tribe. Another 

 feathered friend of the cacti is the cactus wren, 

 a little songster with a grayish brown back, a 

 darker head, a spotted breast, and a white line 

 over the eye. It builds a large, flask-shaped 

 nest of grasses and twigs which it lines with 

 feathers. The nest is entered by a covered 

 way or neck several inches long. 



The column cactus, like most of its relatives, 

 is a prolific producer of seeds. Millions reach 

 the ground, thousands may germinate, but only 

 now and then does one escape the perils of 

 childhood and become a full-grown cactus. In 

 their youthful days the sahuaros are odd, 

 round plants only a few inches high and with 

 the spines, which protect them from animal 

 depredations, undeveloped. The fruits of this 

 species have a crimson flesh and black seeds, 

 reminding one in those respects of the Georgia 

 watermelon. The Papago Indians eat both the 

 meat and the seeds. 



THE CACTUS 



(Echinocereus fendleri (Engelm.) Ruempl.) 



In choosing the cactus as New Mexico's 

 flower favorite the school children of that 

 State honored a family of plants which are 

 almost exclusively Americans. If a few spe- 

 cies that originated in Africa be excepted, the 

 cacti are limited to America. 



49S 



