168 THE FANTASTIC CLAN 



longer, many of them dangerously recurved and hooked; 

 Its large bell-shaped blossoms form a halo of rose and purple 

 about the tips of this diminutive cactus, quite pretty with 

 the lavender filaments and reddish styles; the styles are 

 finely hairy their entire length, a very rare characteristic 

 among cacti. 



And now the trek of a long desert day is done. Tired 

 and thirsty, we jot down our notes for future study and 

 reference, and sit down in the shade of some desert rock or 

 hummock, to gaze out over the receding panorama before 

 us, wondering if, after all, it doesn't look like a great desert 

 graveyard, the big and little VIsnaga strangely enigmatic 

 monuments of some burled past, standing by till Time shall 

 obliterate all. 



The Barrel Cactus Group; Visnaga and 



ViSNAGITA (Echinocactus) 



How to identify and how they grow 



Small or large plants that are globular or cylindric and 

 strongly ribbed with sharp stout thorns, suggesting a barrel 

 In size and shape, from a foot to three or four feet high, 

 sometimes reaching nine feet, growing singly or in groups of 

 two to four or more. The central spines are the strongest, 

 usually one or more hooked; the radial spines also are stout, 

 the radial bristles or threads if present are somewhat firm 

 or rather weak in texture. The ridges run lengthwise over 

 the whole plant body, and are covered with a dense lacework 

 of thorns which are often cross-ridged and of several kinds, 

 forming in clusters, a network over the entire plant. This 

 lacework of spines is rather similar to the network of thorns 

 covering the Hedgehog Cactus. But the Echinocactus can 

 be identified by its barrel shape. The stems are mostly sim- 



