The Hchinocereus fendleri is but one of 

 many of the types of cacti to be found on New 

 Mexico's broad mesas and desert valleys. 

 Looking like a cross between a pineapple, a 

 cucumber, and a green pepper, and crowned 

 with a brilliant flower whose red petals, yel- 

 lowish stamens, and green pistil make a color 

 symphony, this species is always a favorite. It 

 is a sort of vegetable porcupine, ready to give 

 every comer a reception that will not soon be 

 forgotten. Many an admirer, seeing it for the 

 first time, has plucked a blossom to his sorrow, 

 for the tiny hairy thorns stick to the fingers in 

 a most irritating fashion. 



The cacti are one of the most interesting 

 family of plants, containing many remarkable 

 species. There is the barrel cactus, or visnaga, 

 which often comes to the traveler's rescue in 

 the desert. The barrel cactus acts as a cistern, 

 collecting within itself reservoirs of water, 

 which the traveler in the desert may tap. Then 

 there is the coccus cacti, which is cultivated in 

 Mexico and Central America as food for the 

 cochineal insect, from which dyes for making 

 carmine and scarlet are derived. The spines 

 of another cactus are used as tooth-picks by 

 the American Indians. Then there are the 

 opuntias, which include the prickly pear or In- 

 dian fig cactus.' Several species are cultivated 

 in southern Europe and northern Africa for 

 their sweet, juicy fruit. 



THE MISTLETOE 

 (Phoradendron flavescens, Pursh, Nutt) 



The mistletoe is the only one of the State 

 flowers so far adopted that is parasitic in its 

 habits. And yet, parasite or no parasite, there 

 is no blossom in the catalogue that has more 

 of romance clinging to it than this, Oklahoma's 

 representative in the galaxy of emblematic 

 flowers (see page 514). 



Mistletoe figured in the superstitious rites of 

 the British Druids and in the Nature myths 

 of the Scandinavians. Balder, , son of Odin, 

 husband of Nanna, and the darling of all the 

 gods, was so fair that light streamed from 

 him and the whitest flower that blew was 

 likened to him. Once he had a dream of an 

 impending disaster, which caused his mother 

 to put all things, animate and inanimate, under 

 a vow not to harm him. But she omitted one 

 object — the mistletoe. Loki, his enemy, dis- 

 covers this omission and induces Balder's 

 brother to shoot at him in play with an arrow 

 of mistletoe. It hits the mark and Balder, god 

 of light, dies, becoming thereafter the emblem 

 of purity and innocence. 



The mistletoe was then presented to the god- 

 dess of love, and it was ordained that whoever 

 passed beneath it should receive a kiss as a 

 token that it was an emblem of love and not 

 of vengeance. The modern Yuletide custom — 

 perhaps more talked about than observed — of 

 kissing the pretty girl under the mistletoe is a 

 survival of those days. 



There are more than 400 species of mistle- 

 toe, most of them tropical and most of them 

 parasitic. In the United States there are many 

 varieties and they range far and wide, from 

 the New Jersey coast west and south. 



If you ask the Oklahoman about the mistle- 

 toe as a parasite, he is likely to answer that if 

 man, tapping the maple for sugar, extracting 

 the sap of the rubber tree for automobile tires, 

 and taking the pine tree's turpentine, is a para- 

 site, then the mistletoe may be called one, too ; 

 but that otherwise it deserves to be absolved. 

 It has as much right to get its food from trees, 

 he maintains, as we have to eat beef and mut- 

 ton or wear woolen clothes or silks and satins. 



Of all plants the mistletoe has fewest breath- 

 ing pores in its leaves — only 200 to the square 

 inch, while the lilac has 200,000. The leaves 

 are almost nerveless, thick, and fleshy. When 

 the seeds put out roots, they always turn to- 

 ward the branch, no matter whether on the 

 upper or the lower side of it. 



Traveling through the South, one may see 

 thousands of trees literally festooned with 

 mistletoe, now growing like witches' brooms, 

 now in graceful array, but always calmly ap- 

 propriating for its own development the life 

 blood of the tree upon which it feeds. 



THE PASQUE FLOWER 



(Pulsatilla patens, L., Mill) 



Inhabiting dry soil and prairie lands, blos- 

 soming through March and April, ranging from 

 Illinois to the Rocky Mountains and from 

 Canada to Texas, the pasque flower, elected 

 queen of flowerland by the legislature of South 

 Dakota, need never fear to stand in any flower 

 company, however distinguished, however beau- 

 tiful, however charming (see page 514). 



As a member of the crowfoot family, the 

 pasque flower has some lovely cousins. For 

 instance, there is the Virgin's bower or clem- 

 atis, the wood anemone, the buttercup, the 

 larkspur, the monkshood, the columbine, the 

 goldthread, and the baneberries. Its immediate 

 relatives are the anemones, among which it is 

 one of the prettiest. 



With the first warm sunshine of spring the 

 pasque flower begins to lend its soft purplish 

 hues to the landscape. Its leaves are so furry, 

 the result of its unconscious efforts to protect 

 itself from pilfering ants and other creeping 

 insects, that the children of South Dakota have 

 come to call it the "gosling plant." If its lovely 

 flowers gladden the hills while ungenial winter 

 wanes, its fruiting period also has beauty to 

 offer. A head of silky seedlets with their 

 dainty plumes leads many people to call it the 

 ground clematis. 



The stalk of the anemone lengthens consid- 

 erably after the plant flowers. Those familiar 

 with the garden varieties have noticed how it 

 grows longer even after it has been cut. If 

 the stems be put in water, they readily double 

 their length. This power of cell-making, with 

 only air, light, and water out of which to 

 manufacture tissue, seems a wonderful gift. 

 Devoid of roots and possessed only of local 

 energy, it is hard to understand how the stalk 

 continues to grow. It has been suggested that 

 the duty of raising the seed capsule to the re- 

 quired height may be one that the roots have 

 delegated to another part, just as the brain of 

 man has delegated to the nerve ganglions the 

 duty of shutting the eyes when they are threat- 



499 



