42 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



Brown Pincushion (Mammillaria WilcoxU) 



Southern and Southeastern Arizona 



The Brown Pincushion is one of the most attractive of 

 the southwestern cacti, and is a rare creation indeed. This 

 tiny cactus is two or three inches tall and about as broad, with 

 a beautiful halo of red-brown thorns covering the whole 

 plant, the hooked central spines and whitish radials slender, 

 sharp, needlelike, with pointed tips. Through these the 

 tiny flowers peep in two rows of thirty-five or forty bright 

 purple or pink petals, recurved into the pretty cornucopia 

 effect that we have seen so often among the clumps of Pin- 

 cushions on our way across the desert. But beware of press- 

 ing the fingers against this dainty pincushion too hard, for if 

 the sharp points of the central spines get hooked Into the 

 hand It is only with great difficulty and discomfort that one 

 can get free. When the first offenders are released other 

 spines hook Into the flesh, and the plant seems to play with 

 the victim for some time to see just how far it can go in pro- 

 voking one so lacking in desert knowledge. 



Horned Toad Cactus (Mammillaria Mainae) 



Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora 



This rare little cactus was found in Arizona for the first 

 time In 1931. Two or three Inches high and nearly as broad, 

 he seems to be sitting up in front of us like a horned toad, 

 looking us over, his head flattened out in a slightly grotesque 

 posture, pale green tubercles In thirteen or more spiral rows 

 covering his flabby body, from which spring the dozen or so 

 white and yellow radial thorns and the hooked central spines, 

 also forming into a regular spiral twist. The brown and 

 red striped flowers, an Inch or so long, are not the lovely 

 showy beauties of his brother baby cacti. Perhaps his easy 

 life in grassy lands away from hottest sun and arid habitat 



