The California Pincushion grows from single stems a foot high and two and one-half inches in diameter, or several in a cluster. Sometimes the stems are branched and cylindrical with a loose flabby texture. The root is narrow, conical, and fleshy. The tubercles are usually less than a half-inch long and loosely set in eight spiral rows. There are from forty to sixty-five radial spines placed in two whorls, slender and white with red-brown tips; also one to four central spines which are strongly hooked, dark reddish brown or blackish. The flowers are usually about two inches long and are purplish. The sepals and petals are ciliate and covered with many fine hairs. How to grow This pincushion is not injured by temperatures fifteen or twenty degrees below freezing and hence grows indoors or out; it thrives in hot, sunny conservatories or greenhouses. The plants grow easily from seed sown in sandy soil with partial shade, the soil moist but not wet. Plants may be transplanted at any season in sandy, stony, or gravelly soil, and watered once in two or three weeks during dry spells. Black Spined Pincushion Cactus (_Mammillaria Milleri_) (Named for Dr. Gerrett S. Miller, Jr., who first collected it near Phoenix, Arizona) How to identify and how it grows The Black Spined Pincushion, another of the _Mammillaria_ genus of Cactaceæ, grows from single stems or several stems in clumps which are sometimes branched, and from two to nine inches high, two to three inches in diameter. The stems are globose or cylindrical with the tubercles crowded close together on their lower parts. These tubercles are about one-third of an inch long, and are arranged symmetrically in eleven to fourteen rows. There are from seventeen to twenty radially placed spines, widely spreading and about a half-inch long, with a white body and reddish brown tips; also one to three central spines with upturned hooks, brownish red appearing black at a distance. The flowers are purple fading out to a pink, and bell-shaped. This handsome desert species strongly resembles the beautiful Sunset Cactus, but has much stouter and darker central spines. How to grow This plant should be treated similarly to the Sunset Cactus. Young plants grow readily from seed in moist sandy or loamy soil in pots or flats in part shade. Older plants may be transplanted at almost any season in rocky or gravelly soils and watered once or twice a month during dry seasons. They are not injured by temperatures twenty or twenty-five degrees below freezing, but with greater cold than this must be protected or grown in warm sunny conservatories. CHAPTER IV THE PARADE OF THE DESERT FLOWERS