MINIATURE FORTRESSES 149 



branches forming Into a broad Irregular open head, and with 

 tubercled joints three to nine Inches long, which are set In 

 spiral rows. They are gray-green suffused with yellow and 

 purple. The straw-colored spicules are formed In bundles, 

 while the six to fifteen spines are gray suffused with pink, or 

 brown; this produces a characteristic grayish pink coloring. 

 These thorns are covered with thin yellowish sheaths. The 

 flowers are very showy and appear in abundance at the tips of 

 the joints, which are three to nine Inches in length. The fruit 

 Is light yellow, broadly elliptical, tubercled and firm, with 

 thick walls, and It remains on the plant for a year or longer. 

 This Cholla grows In the rocky foothills and bajadas and In 

 the sandy desert areas of the southern part of New Mexico 

 and Arizona at fifteen hundred to five thousand feet. 



How to grow 



Set out young plants at any season or plant cuttings In 

 spring in sandy or gravelly clay soil and water once a month 

 to keep the soil slightly moist until the plants are well estab- 

 lished. They grow very easily from cuttings. This Cholla 

 is not injured by zero temperature and grows well outdoors 

 or in the house; but with temperatures below zero it re- 

 quires protection. 



Jumping Cholla (Opuntia fulgida) 



(Named fulgida from the silvery sheathed spines, which 

 glisten in the strong desert sunlight) 



How to identify and how it grows 



The Jumping Cholla is a handsome dwarf tree growing 

 as high as fifteen feet, deeply fissured, with a stout woody 

 trunk as much as four feet long, and with candelabralike 

 branches of blackish or brownish bark. These branches 

 form the broadly rounded head of the tree. The joints are 



