70 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



glorious sight, and one wonders how It Is possible for so 

 fine a flower to grow on the sandy gravelly foothills without 

 any attention or care from the hand of man. Here again 

 it is Nature, the Great Gardener, with her marvelous science 

 and daring ingenuity, who enables her plants to receive life 

 and sustenance through the miraculous reservoirs of root 

 and stem, even amid the burning sun and drying winds of the 

 great desert of the Southwest. 



The fruit, about an inch and a half long, is armed with nu- 

 merous clusters of short brown-tipped spines. When ripe 

 it is light yellow, pink, or purple-red, and the thorns, then, 

 are easily rubbed off leaving the surface entirely smooth. 

 The mature fruit served with cream and sugar is delicious 

 and suggests strawberries; It Is used as an article of food 

 and for barter among the Indians and Mexicans. A large 

 plant bears one or two quarts of the luscious fruit, in late 

 May or early June. Hence this cactus, too, is called the In- 

 dian or Desert Strawberry Cactus. The species is named 

 in honor of August Fendler, who collected extensively in 

 New Mexico and Arizona in the early days. 



Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus) 

 Southeastern Arizona and Sonora 



Here is a real beauty, Echinocereus rigidissimus, the lovely 

 Rainbow Cactus, so called from the many colors of her 

 spines arranged in bands a half-inch to an inch wide, one 

 following another In quick succession extending around the 

 plant. This beautiful desert growth Is a great favorite In 

 cactus collections, but unfortunately, when removed from her 

 natural habitat, she pines away and Is short-lived. The 

 scientific name rigidissimus refers to her spines, which are 

 noticeably stiff. 



Among rocks and stones on hillsides In exposed and sunny 



