106 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



ern Arizona and Nevada, ranging far up from five to seven 

 thousand feet, this hardy cactus will endure temperatures 

 even below zero without the slightest injury. 



And now the borealis of desert color has passed us by in its 

 rush to the coolness and stillness of the desert night, only to 

 recuperate and renew Its gay attire and appear in fresh array 

 of hue and tint In the morrow's pearly dawn. In ages long 

 gone by, when worlds were In the making, with the swish of 

 the eternal paintbrush the flowers received their colorings, 

 and it Is with awe and admiration we have greeted these 

 colorful creations come forth at the touch of the Master 

 Artist; for we find them only here In the land of the burning 

 sun, where they are born to their lonely vigil under the sky 

 and stars, but to live and thrive and to fade and die, only to 

 reappear anon in eternal and varied expressions of the Infinite 

 Mind of Nature. Thus to-day passes Into to-morrow, when 

 new fields are waiting to be painted on the glorious canvas of 

 the desert, and so we must take our leave of gorgeous bloom 

 and brilliant filigree alike, and hurry along as the setting sun 

 traces a last fiery pattern across the flaming heavens. 



The Prickly Pear Group or Nopals 



(Platopuntia) 



How to identify and how they grow 



These plants are large or small shrubs, consisting of sev- 

 eral jointed stems, the flat platelike joints or branches pear- 

 shaped, elongated, thorny, but not distinctly tubercled, the 

 clumps of joints from one to six or more feet in height, and 

 from two to ten or twelve feet across. Spicules, sometimes 

 called glochldia, are always present. The plants always 

 have scalelike leaves which soon fall off. The Prickly Pears, 

 like the ChoUa, have spines of but one kind and of many dif- 



