70 
The Colorado River 
is often twenty-five feet high, the more distant ones appear 
to beckon like some uncanny desert octopus yearning to draw 
him within reach of those scrawny arms. The blossom of 
this monstrous growth is a revelation, so unexpected is it. A 
group as large as one’s head, pure white, on the extremity of 
a dagger-covered bough, it is like an angel amidst bayonets. 
Vegetation of the Southwest. 
Photograph by E. O. Beaman. 
The pitahaya, often more than thirty feet high and twelve to 
twenty-four inches diameter, is a fit companion for the Joshua, 
with an equally startling blossom. 
“To go out on the desert . . . and meet these cacti is like 
whispering into the ear of the Sphinx, and listening at her locked 
lips, . . . and to go out in April and see them suddenly abloom 
