162 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



appears at a distance like a bundle of straw. The flowers, 

 an inch or so long and about as broad, are borne in a circle 

 clustering around the tops of the stems, which grow singly or 

 in clumps of two to ten, four to nine feet high according to 

 age; the spine clusters are about an inch apart, golden and 

 straw-yellow suffused with pink near the bases, sometimes 

 pink banded with the tips growing straight or curved, all 

 spines very fine hairy. The species is named for E. P. Rost, 

 who discovered it, and is found in a very restricted area 

 among the arid, gravelly or rocky foothills and bajadas or 

 mesalike mountain slopes and canons. The plant is a strik- 

 ing object against the landscape in its dense spiny armament, 

 rendered impenetrable by the beautifully mottled stout spines 

 extending In every direction; then in April come the golden 

 blossoms encircling the tips of the stems in a flashing aureole 

 of light. 



California Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus 



acanthodes) 



Southeastern California, Lower California, and 

 Southern Nevada 



The California Barrel Cactus, Echinocactus acanthodes, 

 grows in arid, gravelly or rocky foothills and arroyos on 

 the deserts of southeastern California in the Imperial Valley, 

 and in northern Lower California. This species grew for- 

 merly In great abundance on the rocky, gravelly mesas of the 

 Coachella Desert near Palm Springs, California; now, how- 

 ever, many of the fine large specimens have been removed, 

 and the sticky pulp of the stems utilized for cactus candy 

 manufacture. The name acanthodes refers to Its many 

 spines, a gray-yellow fringe of seven or eight stout needle- 

 like bristles, and eight or nine pink and yellow banded radial 



