24 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



ten feet, then bending over and climbing for several feet. 

 Each bears a dozen or so low ridges lined with clusters of 

 slender spines a half-inch or so long, translucent white or 

 dull cream color. The large brilliant blooms are eight to 

 nine inches long and when fully open five to seven inches 

 across, with soft cream-white petals and pink and tan sepals 

 touched with green, both strongly reflexed. The strong 

 spicy fragrance is much like that of a tuberose. Each plant 

 blooms at night and only one night in the year. The dif- 

 ferent plants blossom from April into June. The plants 

 run wild in Mexico and form a luxuriant growth; they are 

 prized as rare beauties by the Mexicans and Indians. 



How to grow 



Set cuttings about a foot long in moist soil, and water 

 weekly; or lay the stems down and cover with moist sand or 

 soil. When grown outside in sunny exposures but in the 

 protection of dwellings the plants are not injured by twenty 

 degrees of frost. In colder weather than this they may be 

 grown in warm, sunny conservatories. 



Giant Cactus or Sahuaro; Sage of the Desert 



(Cereus giganteus) 



How to identify and how it grows 



These are majestic trees thirty to fifty feet tall, with 

 columnar massive trunks which grow singly ten to fifteen 

 feet, then curve sharply erect in branches like a giant cande- 

 labrum. Twenty to twenty-five ridges run the entire length 

 of the trunk, and these flutings expand as the plant fills with 

 water and contract as it loses its moisture. They are cov- 

 ered with long sharp spikes which stick out like diminutive 

 swords closely packed along the tops of the ridges. The 

 flowers are night blooming, four or five inches long and 



