PAINTED CANVAS OF THE DESERT 89 



make a more splendid curtain than our own aurora borealis, 

 flashing intermittently across the northern skies in flaming 

 letters of crimson and gold. 



It seems strange that some of the desert cacti select the 

 daytime, while others of the same family select the night- 

 time to unfold their matchless bloom. It seems strange 

 that a plant with coarse colorless bark, gray and hoary as 

 with age, can have such delicate and splendid blossoms. It 

 seems strange that so brilliant a coloring can come from 

 such desolation as the desert seems to possess, where there is 

 little or no water and the days are hot and dry. It is 

 strange, indeed, but Nature works in mysterious and devious 

 ways her wonders to perform. 



GROWTH AND HABITAT 



This chapter treats of the Opuntia genus of Cactaceae, the 

 well known group of Prickly Pears whose flower colorings 

 are remembered as being so exquisite and delicate, so vivid 

 and attractive both near and afar, the lovely tints and hues 

 so well graduated from the bases of the petals to their tips 

 and so symmetrical of distribution, that attention is at once 

 focused upon them. There are about two hundred sixty 

 species of the Opuntia, of which eighty-eight are in the 

 United States, eighty-seven in Mexico, and the remainder in 

 South America and the outlying islands. The genus Opuntia 

 includes not only the beautiful Prickly Pear but also the 

 familiar Cholla, that tall, stately, antlered plant of the desert 

 domain which frowns at you from along the highway as you 

 approach our no man's land from almost any direction. 

 Starting on a fourth trek into the habitats of cactus plants 

 early in May, we shall look for only the colorful Prickly 

 Pears, characterized by their large pear-shaped joints, the 

 "flapjacks" of the desert; characterized also by their large 



