MINIATURE FORTRESSES 129 



Cholla has fought his way and proved his right to existence, 

 asking nothing from the hand of man and having little to 

 give. Yet we cannot help admiring his sturdy race, their 

 courage and their challenge, standing up to man and even 

 laying down the law in some Instances where they have spread 

 over the ranges, elbowing in unwanted and unasked, never 

 relinquishing to mankind their right to land they have once 

 acquired. "Buckhorn Cholla" is surely a good name for this 

 aggressive fellow. He has two dozen or so sharp red-brown 

 thorns only partly sheathed, greenish yellow blossoms a 

 couple of inches long, tipped with light red and suffused with 

 purplish tints, extremely spiny fruit which become dry at 

 maturity when they fall to the ground. The stems have each 

 a woody core or cylinder from which cactus canes are made to 

 some extent, but the species has no economic use and is re- 

 garded as worthless on the range. 



Golden Spined Jumping Cholla 



(Opuntia Bigelovii) 



Southern and Western Arizona, Northern Sonora, 

 Lower California, and Southern Nevada 



We are approaching one of the hottest parts of the Cal- 

 ifornia deserts, Death Valley, in search of perhaps the spin- 

 iest and most dangerous of all the Cholla, the Golden Spined 

 Jumping Cholla. Four to eight feet tall, with numerous 

 stout fantastic arms seemingly pointed at each tenderfoot 

 tourist hurrying across the desert, like unholy messengers of 

 evil omen, this remarkable cactus Is very conspicuous in Its 

 rocky habitats. It grows luxuriantly in all the hottest loca- 

 tions on our American desert, Coachella and Imperial valleys 

 In Southern California, southwestern Arizona, as well as here 

 before us In the sweltering heat of that great canon so aptly 

 designated as our "Death Valley" of the Southland. With 



