A DESERT FASHION SHOW 25 



half as wide, growing solitary but in such masses as to ap- 

 pear clustered, with large satiny, waxy white petals strongly 

 reflexed. The fruit is about the shape and size of an egg, 

 with crimson pulp, palatable and prized highly by the In- 

 dians. The Giant Cactus is one of the largest cacti in the 

 world and can blossom and bear fruit for three years with- 

 out rain, using the reservoir of water that Nature provides. 



How to groiv 



The plants grow readily from seed sow^n in sandy soil in 

 pots or flats and may be transplanted when a half-inch tall. 

 The soil should be kept moist but never wet. Transplant 

 young plants one to six feet high in spring, taking two feet 

 of the roots with care not to injure them, and set in gravelly 

 clay soil, irrigating once a month during dry seasons. Giant 

 cactus plants one foot tall or taller thrive out of doors and 

 will endure a temperature twenty degrees below freezing 

 without injury. Where the weather Is colder than this they 

 must be protected In winter, or grown in dry sunny conserva- 

 tories or indoor rock gardens. 



Night Blooming Cereus; Reina de Noche; 

 Queen of Night (Cereus Greggii) 



(Named in honor of Dr. J. Gregg, student of cacti and plant 

 explorer of Northern Mexico) 



How to identify and how it grows 



One of the most beautiful of all cactus flowers. The 

 plants grow two to three feet tall, rarely eight feet, the 

 blackish grotesque stems densely fine hairy and loosely 

 branched, resembling a crooked stick or a snake. They are 

 very slender, a half-Inch or so in diameter, and are fluted 

 with four to six blackish gray-green ridges, lined with spines 



