CHAPTER II 

 CACTUS SPINES AND PECULIARITIES 



And now we will pause In our trip across Cactus Land to 

 take up the many peculiar features which characterize and 

 differentiate these odd desert plants, and to tell of those in- 

 dividual and unique growths, the terrible swordlike thorns 

 of the strange Fantastic Clan. 



PECULIARITIES 



Cacti are not closely related to any other family of plants, 

 and there is no certainty as to which group of plants they de- 

 veloped from. Their immediate ancestors perhaps have dis- 

 appeared in the hazy past. They stand, therefore, alone. 

 In this respect few other plants resemble them: only one 

 or two other families, for instance the Ocotillos or Fouqui- 

 eriacese, are in a like position. 



Cacti are generally thought of as limited to North and 

 South America and the outlying Islands. However, about 

 eleven species of one genus, Rhipsalis, grow, apparently na- 

 tive. In South Africa, Madagascar, and Ceylon, though these 

 are Identical with the same species growing in South America. 

 There Is a strong belief that these species were distributed 

 In Africa by birds eating their ripe fruit In South America 

 and then flying across the ocean to Africa, and there drop- 

 ping the seeds, which germinated and grew into plants on 

 another continent. The most widely distributed of the vari- 

 ous groups of cacti Is the prickly pear group of the genus 



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