LAVENDER [Illustration: Mammillaria microcarpa] Common names: PINCUSHION CACTUS, FISHHOOK CACTUS, CORKSEED CACTUS, NIPPLE CACTUS, BUTTON CACTUS Arizona desert: (_Mammillaria microcarpa_). Lavender. June-July. California desert: (_Mammillaria tetrancistra_). Lavender. June-July. Texas-New Mexico deserts: (_Mammillaria micromeris_). Lavender. Early summer. Cactus family. Size: Cucumber-shaped and 3 to 10 inches high. Unlike blossoms of many of the Cacti, flowers of the little _Mammallarias_ often last for several days. Blossoms are pink or lavender, occasionally yellow, while the fruits are finger- or club-shaped and red. Being small and forming low clumps, or with single pincushion-like stems, they often escape attention except when glorified with bright, comparatively large flowers, which often form a crown around the top of the plant. The long spines are curved at the tips giving the plant the appearance of being covered with unbarbed fishhooks. The Pincushion cacti, of which there are a number of species throughout the Southwest, occur in dry, sandy hills from southern Utah to western Texas and in southern California and northern Mexico. The red fruits are bare, without scales, spines, or hairs. LAVENDER [Illustration: Gilia longiflora Gilia filifolia] Common names: GILIA, STARFLOWER Arizona desert: (_Gilia filifolia_). Lavender. April-May. California desert: (_Gilia latifolia_). Pink-lavender. March-April. Texas desert: (_Gilia longiflora_). Blue-lavender. April-October. Phlox family. Size: 6 to 24 inches high. Although the Gilias are not generally well known, they are common, quite widely distributed throughout the Southwest, and their beauty deserves wider recognition. There are a great many species (of which early flowering _G. inconspicua_ is perhaps the commonest) at higher elevations as well as throughout the desert. Many of these are worthy of cultivation as ornamentals. Desert species, in general, are pale blue, white, or lavender while those of the higher elevations are pink, coral, or yellow to scarlet; although this is by no means a hard-and-fast rule. Following winters of above-normal precipitation, desert species sometimes produce such heavy stands that the flowers cover large areas with a delicate pale blue or lavender carpet. Some species are attractive to Hummingbirds. LAVENDER [Illustration: Phacelia crenulata]