THE BABY CACTUS 47 



growth, peering from between rocks and cobblestones or 

 lying in clumps in crevices of the rocks among the foothills. 

 All colors of the rainbow, it would seem, are woven into ex- 

 quisite patterns by Nature in her baby cacti, their brilliantly 

 painted flowering segments spreading out in spring array 

 like so many gilded rays of the spectrum and creating the 

 mirage of a gayly tinted rainbow, dazzling the eyes of the 

 traveler as he speeds along the highway across the desert. 

 Deep In the recesses of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, 

 northward into southern Utah and Nevada, and southward 

 again around the Superstition Mountains In Arizona and the 

 Santa Ritas (near Tucson), these dainty cacti, when In 

 bloom, color the landscape far and near, on the mesas and 

 along the ba'jadas into Southern California, and far south into 

 old Mexico, where they come forth in dozens of flowering 

 varieties. And here we must leave our tiny symbols of the 

 Cactacea clan, for the shadows are beginning to lengthen; 

 the sun has finished his journey across the western heavens 

 and we bid farewell to our baby cacti, beautiful rainbows of 

 the desert, for to-morrow we continue our journey over sandy 

 arid lands, and travel a different way among the weird Fan- 

 tastic Clan. 



The Pincushion Group; Baby Cacti 



(Mammillaria and Coryphantha) 



How to identify and how they grow 



These are funny little ball-like plants, an inch to a foot in 

 diameter and height, often broader than they are tall, the 

 upper surface almost flattened, while the main part of the 

 plant is a carrot-shaped fleshy root. The stems are mostly 

 simple, sometimes branched ; they grow singly or occasionally 

 in clusters, and are not ribbed but studded with numerous 

 tubercles spirally arranged. These are the smallest of the 



