[Sidenote: =Common Prickly Pear=
_Opúntia_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
Southwest=]
There are fifty or more common kinds of Prickly Pear, many of them as
yet undescribed and little known. They have flattened joints and yellow
flowers, like the one illustrated, which is typical, often measuring
three or four inches across, the petals variously tinted outside with
salmon, rose, and brown.
There are many kinds of Cactus, round, cylindrical, or oval plants,
covered with knobs, bearing clusters of spines, those of some species
having hooked tips. They may be known by their smooth fruits, without
scales or spines.
[Sidenote: =Pincushion Cactus=
_Cáctus Gràhami (Mamillaria)_
=Pink
Spring
Arizona=]
A quaint little plant, often no bigger than a billiard ball, with long,
blackish, hooklike spines, projecting from stars of smaller spines.
The flowers are pink and the berries are smooth, fleshy fingers of
brightest scarlet, edible, pretty and odd. Sometimes we see one of
these prickly little balls peeping from under a rock and again we find
them growing in a colony, looking much like a pile of sea-urchins. This
grows in the Grand Canyon, and there are similar kinds in southern
California.
There are many kinds of Cereus, with cylindrical or oval stems, from a
few inches to forty feet tall, not jointed, with ribs or rows of knobs,
running lengthwise, and clusters of spines.
[Sidenote: =Column Cactus, Sahuaro=
_Cèreus gigantèus_
=White
Spring, summer
Arizona=]
These tree-like plants are wonderfully dignified and solemn in aspect,
with none of the grotesque or ferocious effect so common among their
relations. They grow in numbers on the mountain slopes around Tucson
and are easily recognized by their size and very upright form, rearing
their thick, cylindrical branches straight up in the air, to a height
of thirty or forty feet. They are smooth and light green, armed
with rows of spines in stars along the ridges, and ornamented
during May and June with handsome, large, whitish, wax-like flowers,
very perfect in form, opening in the daytime, blooming most abundantly
on the sunny side of the plant and remaining open but a short time.
Woodpeckers often make holes for nests in the branches, which are used
afterwards by a little native owl, the smallest kind in the world, and
by honey-bees, and these holes often lead to decay and to the ultimate
death of the tree. The fruits, with crimson flesh and black seeds,
are valued by the Papago Indians for food, and mature in enormous
quantities in midsummer, but birds eat up many of the seeds and of the
millions reaching the ground only a very few germinate and develop into
odd, little round plants, a few inches high, often eaten by some animal
before they become sufficiently prickly for protection.
[Illustration: Pincushion Cactus--Cactus Grahami.]
[Illustration: Common Prickly Pear--Opuntia.]