The desert is noted for its many forms of mirage, and because of the rarefied or clear atmosphere due to lack of moisture, things are not always what they seem there. In the distance ahead numberless baby foxes appear to be moving slowly toward us, their heads and bodies hidden from view, their white and reddish tails waving in the hot desert breezes. Now our guide smiles, and as we drive closer and stop he points out several clumps of short cylindric Foxtail Cacti, covered with dense masses of stiff radiating spines, white or whitish with darker tips, and stout central spines white at their bases, then black, shading into reddish brown, the whole resembling a fox’s tail and creating a striking appearance. Light pink are the dainty flowers, and when full open (only in the brightest sunlight) nearly an inch and a half wide and long, the sepals hairy and the beautiful petals narrowly lance-shaped. It is no wonder that our baby cacti are so popular for winter rock gardens with their almost perfect symmetry, and their wonderful uniformity of spines so often beautifully mottled, with exquisite patterns of color and design, brilliant, cross-patch, symmetrical, running through the individual thorns. Care should be taken that such rock gardens are _arid_ gardens, and that the soil is not enriched, with just sufficient water to encourage a natural, compact, symmetrical growth. A heavy flooding occasionally is good. If over-watered, or fertilized too much, or if shaded, these tiny cacti make a rapid artificial growth, usually non-symmetrical in part, called “storied” or “zoned.” Cream Cactus (_Mammillaria MacDougalii_) _Western and Southern Arizona, and Northern Sonora_ Especially is this true of the Cream Cactus, a very odd and interesting Pincushion, with a thick conical fleshy root which transplants easily and grows with little care from the hand of man. This fellow is broader than he is tall, four to ten inches in diameter, only two to six inches high, having a flat head around which radiate his clusters of thirteen or so cream-white short stout spines, and one or two pale red central thorns with purplish brown curved tips and yellow bulbous bases; into this harmony of color come the flowers in bloom, twenty-five or more cream-colored or light yellow petals recurving into a lovely cornucopia effect, very pretty in the dazzling sun of spring and summer on the desert. When injured by small rodents or other enemies, _MacDougalii_ yields a thick creamy fluid which immediately heals the wounds, and is pleasant to taste. Hence his name. Recurved Spine Pincushion (_Coryphantha_ or _Mammillaria recurvata_) _Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora_