_Echinocactus intertextus_, the Interlacing Spine Cactus, signals our attention first, a rare and brightly flowered little fellow. It is interesting to note that the name _intertextus_ refers to the numerous radial interlacing spines covering this Visnagita in two or three whorls, and on the older plants forming a dense lacework over the entire plant. Only an inch and a half tall in many cases, sometimes reaching the height of six inches, his stems are deeply ridged in spirals a half-inch or so apart, of a dull green or yellow-green and scurfy. The thorns are stout and awl-shaped, abruptly pointed, and translucent pink-yellow with darker tips, becoming dull gray or black near the base of the plant; twenty or thirty spines radiating like the spokes of a wheel and interlocking with others, four or five centrals, dull gray with reddish brown tips. _Intertextus_ thrives in rocky, gravelly soils at altitudes of four or five thousand feet; his bright and beautiful bloom may be glimpsed from quite a distance, light purplish flowers with yellow stamens, growing in clusters near the centers or tops of the stems. The blossoms of _Echinocactus_ nearly always appear in a circle around the head of the plant, just above the young spine-bearing areolas, the flowers continuing to develop on the inside of the circle in areolas that are continuously forming by further growth of the plant. Purple Spined Visnagita (_Echinocactus erectocentrus_) _Southeastern Arizona_ Purple Spined Visnagita is a gayly tinted beauty which grows only in limited areas. Indeed not only is it rare and beautiful but the species is fast disappearing; indicative perhaps that Nature in her wise prescience of coming events is already taking care of the problem of overproduction. The flowers are white or flesh-color diffused with pink, most delicately shaded sometimes with a hint of lavender, and are very lovely and fragrant though they do not open fully; they come in clusters surmounting the stem, opening in the forenoon and closing in the afternoon, for four or five days in April and May. It is not strange that the deeper-tinted blossoms appear on the plants with the more brightly hued spines. The latter form a dense, almost impenetrable coat over the entire plant, giving a dull rose-purple effect which can be seen unmistakably for two or three hundred feet or farther in its arid rocky habitat. Purple Spined Visnagita is much in demand by collectors, being easily recognized at a distance by the eighteen or so brightly colored thorns; because of these gayly hued spines it is one of the handsomest of all our smaller cacti, sometimes compared to that beautiful splash of color, the Rainbow Cactus, near which it is often found growing. Traveler’s Friend (_Echinocactus Covillei_) _Southern and Western Arizona, and Sonora_