Plants grow indoors and out, and are not injured by temperatures of twenty-five or thirty degrees below freezing. With colder weather they require protection. They are difficult to transplant on account of the fleshy spindle-shaped roots, which decay if injured. Plants grow readily from the cuttings of two joints or stems with the lower cutting covered with soil, and prefer a sandy soil. They may be grown also from seeds, but these germinate slowly. The _delicata_ thrives with moderate irrigation and should be watered once a month during its growing season and given good drainage. Purple Prickly Pear (_Opuntia santa rita_) (Named from the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson, Arizona, in the vicinity of which it was discovered) How to identify and how it grows _Santa rita_, or the Purple Prickly Pear, is a plant from two to five feet tall composed of jointed compact stems, a foot or less in length and half as wide, forming into a head. These joints are a bluish gray suffused with purple tones and are circular. This characteristic shape distinguishes the species from the ordinary Prickly Pear, which has oblong or elongated joints. The spicules form in a translucent yellowish fringe; there are one or two twisted yellow spines, growing on many specimens to three inches in length. The flowers are about three inches long, and are very showy with their satiny lemon-yellow colorings appearing in April and May. The light green and purple fruit is elliptical. This plant is the handsomest of all the southwestern Prickly Pears, while the purplish circular joints with but a few slender spines make it quite distinctive. How to grow This variety is popular in cactus gardens and grows easily from mature cuttings; if they are set in the ground early in spring, the plants blossom during the same season. Half of the cutting should be covered, and then the plant should be watered lightly during the growing season to keep the soil moist. The plant prefers gravelly or loamy soils. Fine symmetrical plants are grown from seeds, though these germinate slowly. This plant is not injured by zero temperatures, and grows indoors or out. Smooth Prickly Pear (_Opuntia laevis_) (The specific name _laevis_ means “smooth”) How to identify and how it grows