The Candy Barrel Cactus is a very fine plant which grows as high as seven feet and has twenty to thirty ridges running lengthwise. The lower half of the areola is fringed with a dozen or so threadlike bristles about two inches long. Along the ridges are grouped the spines, and in each group it will be noticed that the lowest spine is the longest and has a good strong hook at the tip. The four to eight radials are cross-ridged and stout, one or two inches long. The centrals are from three to five inches long. The upper spine is quite erect, and the central pair no more than two inches long. All the spines are light pink or gray-pink with translucent tips. The flowers are from two to three inches long and half as wide, and have forty or more petals and twenty sepals, the colors being yellow to orange-red. They are formed in a circle at the top of the plant, blooming from July to September. The fruit is elliptical, yellowish, and covered with fan-shaped scales. The plants grow best in sandy or gravelly clay loam of desert areas and the _bajadas_ and foothills. How to grow Transplant at any season in sandy or gravelly clay loam, give enough water to keep the soil moist during the growing season. The seed grow readily in sandy loam in pots or flats, planted in May or June, in part shade with just enough water to keep the soil lightly moist. The plants grow indoors and out and are not injured at twenty-five degrees below freezing, but in zero weather they require some protection. Nigger Head (_Echinocactus Le Contei_—_Ferocactus Le Contei_) (Named in honor of Dr. John Lawrence Le Conte, who discovered it on the lower Gila River in Arizona) How to identify and how it grows The Nigger Head Cactus has spines or bristles which interlock and form an impenetrable coat. The plant grows from a single stalk or stem, a foot and a half in diameter, as high as seven feet, and with twenty to twenty-four ridges. The ten to fourteen grouped bristles are placed radially, are about two inches long and are white or mottled much like a negro’s fuzzy hair. There are also from nine to twelve radial spines one and one-half inches long, while the three or four centrals are larger and stouter than the others, about two and one-half inches long. All the central and radial spines are cross-ridged in mottled pink or light rose shadings, and have yellow tips. The flowers, which open in April and May, are yellow, and the midribs of the petals and sepals are a reddish purple on the outside. The blossoms are about the length and breadth of an egg and very rarely open in full. The fruit matures in July. This species grows best in rocky soils and in the hottest and dryest exposures. How to grow