166 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



and often called the Lemonade Cactus. A little Mexican 

 cactus juice, some sugar and Ice-water, a hot day, and you 

 have a cool delightful drink. This species Is made striking 

 by Its great size, mature plants reaching a height of nine feet, 

 with several stems forming in clumps or growing singly, and 

 by the light red hooked spines which give the stems a reddish 

 coloring when seen at a distance. The blossoms are group 

 flowers of orange-yellow, having the appearance of red on 

 the outside and golden within, and clustering in a circle 

 around the tops of the stems. This fine Fruit Cactus Is 

 native to the foothills and mountains of Central Mexico In 

 the Mexican states of Coahuila and Zacatecas. 



Giant VisNAGA (Echinocactus visnaga) 



Central Mexico (San Luis Potost) 



It is late on a sultry day in June and we are speeding along 

 the dusty highways of Central Mexico, intent on our quest 

 for a certain queer specimen of the weird Fantastic Clan, 

 when the long low shadows of the afternoon begin to slant 

 over the singular cactus growths for which we have been 

 searching, and the blue haze of a waning day Is seen to gather 

 over the distant mountains. We pause in our hurried flight 

 across the Mexican hajadas, as a strange and lurid spec- 

 tacle comes Into view. It Is a forest of the Giant Visnaga, 

 greenish monsters of the desert, appearing to rise out of 

 the ground In front of us, towering on their fantastic yellow- 

 green bodies and leaning toward us, like some strange mes- 

 sengers of a departed world come back to us In this grave- 

 yard of the desert. The Giant Barrel Is the cactus In search 

 of which we have traveled all the way from Southern Cali- 

 fornia to San Luis Potosi, In Central Mexico, a monster 

 growth six to nine feet tall, three to four feet In diameter, 

 weighing over four thousand pounds; and estimated by 



