
THE STORY OF CACTUS 11 
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seed from that plant will grow like the mother plant in every case, and 
a cactus that produces red flowers will have seeds that grow cacti with red 
flowers. Now to change these characteristics, one must change the amount 
of genes in a seed. As the seed*will not grow if cut open, one must change 
or rather kill some of these genes in the seed without disturbing the shell of 
the seed. These genes are so small that the only way to kill part of them is 
to use X-Ray and we are experimenting along this line with Dr. J. W. Cathcart, 
the X-Ray expert. We took five pods from a Harrisia tortousa. Each one 
we bombarded with the X-Ray a different length of time and are now awaiting 
results. This will take several years. We will give these results in another 
pamphlet. 
NAMING CACTI 
Just a word on naming cacti. We believe that all cacti should be named 
after some characteristic of the plant or after some person who has distinguished 
themselves in botany or horticulture and not after every Tom, Dick or Harry. 
We know of several plants that are being called by names that should be in 
no way associated with these grand plants. Take the Ferocactus robustus, fero- 
cactus or fierce-cactus, and robustus, robust. What better name could this fine 
plant be called? Suppose someone had a sister Sally and had named this plant 
Ferocactus sallyit. We discovered a fine little plant years ago and called it 
Coryphantha minima (70) because it never grew much over one-half inch high. 
We found this plant was named Coryphantha nellei later. A group of ladies 
had a cactus club meeting in a Western City and one of them brought a cactus 
which she had found in a Utah Desert. Not one of them could name it and 
no book they had in their club had it listed so they named it after their 
hostess. It was published because their description was such as no cactus expert 
could doubt it but as a new species. The first one who saw the plant that 
knew a Utahia sileri was nearly mobbed by the ladies when he told them just 
what it was. We believe a commission should be assembled in some way to 
go over all the names given to cacti in the last ten years and straighten out 
this mess. 
We do not believe the above is as bad as calling a cactus Strawberry, Pine- 
apple, or some such name. We know a dealer that has so many silly names 
for cacti that no one can order a cactus elsewhere after once reading his list. 
In Texas, it is against the law to ship a plant unless it is labelled with its 
correct botanical name if it is named at all. We have had over two hundred 
different species pointed out to us as Strawberry Cactus at one time or another. 
USES OF CACTI 
There are many uses for cacti and the main one is of food for man and 
beast. About twenty-five years ago many thought that the spineless cacti (55) 
would revolutionize stock feeding in the West because in Southern California, 
a small part of the desert was irrigated and planted with spineless cacti. This 
patch grew a gigantic crop and the growers advertised this fact. This area had a 
long growing season and no frost and also the patches were fenced for rabbits. 
Many were taken in with the so-called possibilities of this plant for forage and 
many thousands of dollars were spent on spineless cactus pads. Mr. Chas. New- 
man of El Paso, Texas, bought five hundred dollars worth and planted the pads 
at Newman, New Mexico, and one season was all they lasted. The jackrabbits 
ate them. A Chicago man, an executive of a terminal warehouse, wrote me in 
1931, that he wanted five hundred pads to plant on his Illinois farm and 
asked if we could’ get them for him at 50c a piece. We wrote him we could 
get them for him at 10c a piece but they would not live in Illinois three 
months unless they were in a greenhouse or other protection. The ad he 
had, priced them at one dollar each and told of the large yield but failed to tell 
that they would die if the ground was wet for twelve days, or that they would 
freeze at the first gentle frost. 
The native cacti (72) of the Southwest are very different. They will stand 
zero weather and have so many thorns that it is almost impossible for an animal 
to eat them and also, they will live where the spineless will dry up and die. 
During times of drought, the stockmen burn off the spines with a torch. A 
wo ee tae es te EA Es oh lA aie ne Snel i iain: Ba Sea Sala a Soliace 
65 A Mimorista worm in an Opuntia. 68 Rabbit Cactus and Echinopsis. 
66 Growing in solid rock. 69 Harrisia bonplandii. 
67 Showing web of Red Spider. 

