THE BABY CACTUS 37 



distance ahead numberless baby foxes appear to be moving 

 slowly toward us, their heads and bodies hidden from view, 

 their white and reddish tails waving in the hot desert breezes. 

 Now our guide smiles, and as we drive closer and stop he 

 points out several clumps of short cylindric Foxtail Cacti, 

 covered with dense masses of stiff radiating spines, white or 

 whitish with darker tips, and stout central spines white at 

 their bases, then black, shading into reddish brown, the whole 

 resembling a fox's tail and creating a striking appearance. 

 Light pink are the dainty flowers, and when full open (only 

 in the brightest sunlight) nearly an inch and a half wide and 

 long, the sepals hairy and the beautiful petals narrowly lance- 

 shaped. It is no wonder that our baby cacti are so popular 

 for winter rock gardens with their almost perfect symmetry, 

 and their wonderful uniformity of spines so often beautifully 

 mottled, with exquisite patterns of color and design, bril- 

 liant, cross-patch, symmetrical, running through the individ- 

 ual thorns. Care should be taken that such rock gardens are 

 arid gardens, and that the soil is not enriched, with just 

 sufficient water to encourage a natural, compact, symmetrical 

 growth. A heavy flooding occasionally is good. If over- 

 watered, or fertilized too much, or if shaded, these tiny cacti 

 make a rapid artificial growth, usually non-symmetrical in 

 part, called "storied" or "zoned." 



Cream Cactus (Mammillaria MacDougalU) 

 Western and Southern Arizona, and Northern Sonera 



Especially is this true of the Cream Cactus, a very odd and 

 interesting Pincushion, with a thick conical fleshy root which 

 transplants easily and grows with little care from the hand 

 of man. This fellow is broader than he is tall, four to ten 

 inches in diameter, only two to six inches high, having a flat 

 head around which radiate his clusters of thirteen or so 



