I 



MINIATURE FORTRESSES 143 



Inches In many cases, and are gray-green covered by numer- 

 ous brown spicules forming In bundles. One sharp, slender, 

 flattened, bent spine Is present, a half-Inch to two Inches long, 

 with a tan body and a yellow tip, covered with a white sheath 

 which soon falls off. The flowers are a pale yellow and 

 quite small, while the fruit forms In clusters near the ends of 

 the branches, elliptical, about one Inch long and scarlet. A 

 fantastic phenomenon is sometimes noticed in this species: 

 that of a branch growing directly out from a fruit. 



How to grow 



Transplant at any season. Joints broken off and partly 

 covered with soil grow at once into new plants. Young 

 plants also grow quite easily from seed, and ripe fruit can 

 be gathered from the plant almost the year round. The 

 plant has a very wide distribution, grown Indoors and out of 

 doors In almost any kind of soil with no care except to water 

 monthly during dry periods. It Is not injured by temper- 

 atures as low as zero, and with protection In winter can be 

 grown in much colder climates. 



BUCKHORN ChOLLA (Opuntia acanthocarpa) 



(Named acanthocarpa from its very spiny fruit) 



How to identify and how it grows 



The Buckhorn Cholla is a dwarf tree or shrub composed 

 of many stems ascending from the base and forming into a 

 compact head of dangerously thorny branches, very woody 

 in appearance. These branches or joints are four Inches or 

 more In length, cylindrical and yellow-green. They are tu- 

 bercled and have a fringe of yellowish or red-brown spicules, 

 very short and sharp, and many loose clusters of fierce red- 

 brown thorns about an inch long, partly sheathed. The 

 flowers are two Inches or more in length, greenish yellow with 



