The Desert Christmas Cactus is a flaming Cholla shrub with its mass of bright red fruit in winter a brilliant sight on the desert. The sprays of ripe fruit, sometimes used for Christmas decoration, would undoubtedly be in great demand were it not for the many fine reddish brown spicules which dry and in falling become lodged in the clothing and flesh. One of the writers has seen bushes on the desert several feet in height, as one solid mass of brilliant carmine in winter, and some of the ripe fruit stays on the plants practically all the time. A very peculiar phenomenon has been observed from time to time: a fruit or short branch will sometimes appear growing directly out of another fruit on this fantastic _Opuntia leptocaulis_, and thus Nature impregnates her seeming freaks of fancy in thoughtful system and design upon these strange Cactaceæ. This miniature fortress, _leptocaulis_, is covered with sheathed Cholla thorns which are sharp and pointed, tan with translucent yellow tips and loose whitish sheaths. The inch-long flowers are pale yellowish or greenish yellow, and these lazy blossoms have a bad habit of opening their greenish yellow eyes at three o’clock in the afternoon, then closing their petals towards evening. Buckhorn Cholla (_Opuntia acanthocarpa_) _Southern California, Western and Central Arizona, Southern Utah, Northern Mexico, and Southern Nevada_ Fierce and thorny cacti are _Opuntia acanthocarpa_, sometimes appearing on the broad desert land as dwarf trees four to six feet tall, again growing as densely spiny shrubs, impregnable fortresses defying man and beast. Over the arid sandy or gravelly soils of the southwestern desert, this fierce Cholla has fought his way and proved his right to existence, asking nothing from the hand of man and having little to give. Yet we cannot help admiring his sturdy race, their courage and their challenge, standing up to man and even laying down the law in some instances where they have spread over the ranges, elbowing in unwanted and unasked, never relinquishing to mankind their right to land they have once acquired. “Buckhorn Cholla” is surely a good name for this aggressive fellow. He has two dozen or so sharp red-brown thorns only partly sheathed, greenish yellow blossoms a couple of inches long, tipped with light red and suffused with purplish tints, extremely spiny fruit which become dry at maturity when they fall to the ground. The stems have each a woody core or cylinder from which cactus canes are made to some extent, but the species has no economic use and is regarded as worthless on the range. [Illustration: DESERT CHRISTMAS CACTUS; TASAJILLO (Opuntia leptocaulis)] [Illustration: PROLIFIC TREE CHOLLA (Opuntia arbuscula)] Golden Spined Jumping Cholla (_Opuntia Bigelovii_) _Southern and Western Arizona, Northern Sonora, Lower California, and Southern Nevada_