This little cactus grows only three to six inches tall, and about the same in diameter, singly or occasionally in clumps. It is generally to be seen growing in the protection of shrubs at about five thousand feet. The stem is lined with thirteen to fifteen prominent spiraled ribs, and seven to eleven white radial spines. There are also four black and white central thorns which turn red and finally ash-colored, and the lowest of these spines is sharply hooked. The flowers cluster at the top of the plant, bell-shaped blossoms purplish or rose-tinged, with a reddish style hairy its full length. The reddish fruit is oblong and has colorless scales, each of which bears a tuft of hairs in the axil. How to grow Transplant at almost any season but preferably in spring in clay loam or clay soil with part shade, and give enough water to keep the soil moist. Plants can be grown easily from seed sown in sandy loam in pots or flats with part shade, and watered enough to retain moisture in the soil. This Visnagita grows outdoors or inside and endures a temperature of twenty degrees below zero; hence it can be grown in cactus gardens throughout a large part of our country. CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION Finis cannot be written to any story which deals with the desert; for the desert call is a charm, it will etch away the heart of you until it brings you back; back to the long trek across burning arid wastes where you wondered first how any living thing could exist and where you _found_ life and beauty and music, back to the giant amphitheater of the desert where the moonbeams flit about at night among the weird Fantastic Clan and the sun boils everything up by day, defying you then to tarry long. But you take the dare and come again if you can, and yet again, wending your way farther each time across the foothills and mountains, ever in search of that evanescent something called the desert-spell or the thing that calls you back. In our domestic lives we work hard for the few little things we have; many homes are devoid of the animation and color and the thrill of flower creations; for to have the beauty of plants and blossoms is to work for them and then to keep them, by dint of much effort and labor of love. But how different it is on the desert! There the flowers just grow and blossom and keep on blooming without care or cultivation from the hand of man. It seems never to rain in that great natural amphitheater of the sun, but the plants Nature has placed there, so carelessly, we fancy, just bloom and thrive and bloom again. Yet there is no confusion in their placement and pattern; they are filigree and patchwork, scroll and lacework; they represent all that is beautiful and symmetrical in Nature’s handiwork in this realm of desert bloom.