A DESERT FASHION SHOW 13 



den or conservatory is complete without this graceful queen 

 of the desert, whose evanescent beauty surpasses the orchid 

 and the rose; for the delicate shadings and exquisite color- 

 ings of the South American orchid are no finer than those of 

 this night blooming cactus. Pen or brush in the hand of the 

 genius scarce can do justice to the loveliness of Nature's 

 handiwork, the Goddess of the Night. Most popular of all 

 the cacti, she delights to grow wild on the desert mesas, where 

 the sensuous spicy fragrance of her beautiful blossoms per- 

 fumes the air for miles around, along the bajadas in western 

 Texas and Southern California, over the mesas of southern 

 Arizona and far down into old Mexico. Never in abun- 

 dance, this rare flower grows in twos and threes under a 

 creosote, cat's-claw, or other desert shrub, which affords the 

 flower goddess protection from the hot desert winds that 

 at times sweep over the mesas and down the canons, and 

 from the blazing heat of the noonday sun. She prefers a 

 deep sandy loam along the swales or draws of the desert, at 

 altitudes of twenty-five hundred feet and more, though some- 

 times she appears on the mountains as far up as forty-five 

 hundred feet; and related varieties, Cereiis pentagonus and 

 Deeringu, even grace the plains at sea level in the swampy 

 lands of Lake Okechobee down in the south of Florida. An- 

 other cousin, the Cereiis undatus, grows wild all over the 

 tropics, and is a great favorite among natives and whites in 

 Honolulu; around Punahou College there, in Punahou 

 Valley, the hedge of this Night Blooming Cereus is a half- 

 mile long, and on a single night five thousand blossoms have 

 unfolded ! This bloom, often twelve inches long, is the best 

 known of all the Night Blooming Cereus flowers. 



Two to eight feet in height, the blackish green angular 

 grotesque stems bearing the lovely flower queen, almost like 

 a crooked stick or dead snake in their fantastic appearance, 

 form a strange contrast to the ethereal beauty and fragrance 



