92 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



little Is known about its distribution. The tiny plants are 

 sometimes but three inches high, growing to ten inches in 

 different specimens, with one or several stems, long needle- 

 like spines and large yellow flowers, as usual blooming in 

 the morning and closing up their petals in the afternoon. 

 New and interesting specimens of the cactus clan are dis- 

 covered now and then, and it gives the botanist and the lay- 



DELICATE PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia delicata) 



man much pleasure to study and classify them, to look up their 

 haunts and habits and place them where they belong, so 

 that all may see and know them. 



Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa rita) 



Southern Arizona 



We are approaching the beautiful Santa Rita Mountains 

 not far from Tucson, Arizona, nearing also the end of our 

 long afternoon's work, for the blue and purple haze that 

 betokens the close of a hot desert day Is gathering around 

 the distant peaks and the sun hangs low over the horizon, 

 seeming loath to bid farewell to mountain and desert canons 



