But one look from the high bow window and you know at once where you are, with irrepressible cacti and palm-trees peeking in at you.
We could look out at a great patch of blue sky, and fringing the brilliant edges of the grotto were various cacti and rows of peaked hats and a single graceful pepper-tree.
The golden-hued peta was found beside the myriad-flowering oleander, while the undergrowth was braided with cacti and aloes.
The cacti appeared to be of several varieties--many the same as we have in conservatories east, but all vastly larger here.
Giant cacti with their arms reaching out like the arms of a cross loomed up before them.
There were cacti of all kinds around them, and as they ran, the spines caught their clothes.
There were other great cacti in groups of tall straight spines, and every now and then a palm tree would spread its spiky leaves like giant fingers against the sky.
Between the cacti appeared different bushes and even trees; the wooded portion of the foothills of Santa Ana had commenced.
The mountains uplifted themselves in this glow; the cacti assumed different fantastical shapes, resembling people and animals.
Sometimes between the cacti they could see on the horizon the blue mountains of Santa Ana.
The cacti arose higher, and you could say that they grew on the head of one another.
The Epiphyllums or Crab cacti (Ephiphyllum truncatum and its varieties) are by far the most valuable, because of their profuse and long flowering season, especially as it comes in the winter when bright flowers are scarce.
Considered from the layman's point of view, cacti are made up of two classes: those which are valued for their wonderful flowers and those which excite curiosity by their weird habits of growth.
Of the other cacti commonly grown most are of dwarf form and a single window will accommodate quite a number of them.
There are, however, two distinct advantages which most of the cacti possess, making them available for use where no other plants could be kept.
In the evolution of cacti the tendency of the different groups and species is to become leafless, and mostcacti either are without leaves or have leaflets that soon disappear.
Strawberry Cacti are among the most popular plants for southwestern cactus gardens and rock gardens because of their fine showy flowers, and their profuse blooming and fruiting.
Hereabouts several new colonies of cacti are to be seen.
Cactaceae--the botanical name for cacti or the cactus family of plants.
These daintycacti often cling together in groups, and the symmetrical arrangement of the flowers and spines, the brilliant harmony of colorings in both, and the spirally arranged tubercles give the plants a most attractive appearance.
These many-stemmed Barrel Cacti form large hemispherical mounds three to five feet across with the largest stems or trunks in the center.
With the specific information given under the heading "How to Grow" for each species, it is possible to grow cacti successfully in the tropics and over a large part of the temperate zone.
The desert glow is brightening, for the sun is rising just over the eastern rim of the foothills, and we stop to gaze upon the first of a colony of cacti called the Cereus Group.
Thornber's Cholla (Opuntia Thornberi) Southern Arizona Opuntia Thornberi is quite distinct among Cane Cacti in having long tubercles and long angular joints, the latter a foot to two feet in length.
Although the cacti tribe is widely distributed, the region where it presents the greatest variety and the largest individuals is in the dry, semi-desert portions of Arizona and the table-lands of central Mexico.
In the Great Basin several genera of cacti are plentiful, especially on dry, stony uplands, and two species reach as far northward as the Canadian boundary.
In the southwest portions of the United States the forests are confined to the mountains and the higher table-lands, the hot, arid valleys being without trees other than the larger growths of cacti and yucca.
A companion of the cacti in the arid region where they flourish best is the yucca, or Spanish bayonet, which sometimes attains the size of small trees and throws out several branches.
From Mexico also come the dahlia and the giant sunflower, as well as the various species of aloes and cacti now so common in gardens and conservatories the world over.
The cacti present great diversity of form and an indefinite differentiation of stem and leaf.
The fruits of the cacti yielded refreshment in the southwestern States and in Mexico.
Then, unable to control his mad fury longer, he summoned from his desert kingdom an army of Cacti to despoil the beautiful Valley.
Illustration: Cactiin the Sonoran Desert (photograph by John Olson).
The giant saguaro cacti provide nests for desert birds and serve as "trees" of the desert.
Although cacti are often thought of as characteristic desert plants, other types of plants have adapted well to the arid environment.
After about 75 years, the cacti are tall and develop their first branches.
Navajo benedictory chant describing the desert [Illustration: Cacti dominate the Sonoran Desert vegetation near Tucson, Arizona (photograph by Peter Kresan).
All over the sunny slopes cacti lifted slender shafts, unfolding in spiral leaves as they shot upward and bursting at the top into plumes of yellow flowers.
A long slant of yellow slope led down to a sage-covered level, which Hare crossed, pleased to see blooming cacti and wondering at their slender lofty green stems shining with gold flowers.
A word will be said under each species as to whether it is tropical, temperate, or hardy, a tropical temperature for Cacti being in summer 70 degs.
A common complaint in relation to Cactias flowering plants is that they grow all right but rarely or never flower.
Kerner describes how the wild asses in South America root up or try to split the Cacti with their hoofs to get at the juicy tissue of the unarmed lower parts.
The fields and small domestic gardens hereabouts are often hedged by tall, pole-like cacti of the species called the organ cactus, from its peculiar resemblance to the pipes of an organ.
It is said that when cattle can get no water to drink, they will break down the cacti with their horns and chew the thick leaves and stalks to quench their thirst.
No matter how dry and arid the region, the cacti thrive, and are themselves full of moisture.
This parlour was also not lacking in lace curtains and several jardinieres in which grew several--to tell the truth--very ugly and badly kept cacti and geraniums.
But it happened that a year ago one of the cacti had by some accident bloomed.
The first halt made was at the Great Forest of Sahuaro, a forest of giant cacti which flourishes all through the Apache and other mountain regions in that immediate section.
Nest: Nests made from twigs, weeds, and trash are built in abandoned woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti at a height from 5 to 20 feet above the ground.
Nest: The Gila woodpecker excavates holes in saguarocacti for nests.
We gazed in wonder at the groves of cacti which raised their heads many feet in the air, and topped them off with one of the most exquisite blossoms I have ever seen.
At the back stands a high marble shaft, broken at the top, and dotted with greencacti which have sprung forth from the little crevices.
There are hedges and bushes--rather trees I should call them--of cacti growing in all directions.
Across the base she drew a stretch of desert floor, bristling with the thorns of many different cacti brilliant with their gold, pink, and red bloom, intermingled with fine grasses and desert flower faces.
Here we had a magnificent view of the mountains, some of which were snow-capped, and after a few minutes we started on again, driving down to Hesperia, through a miniature forest composed of giant cacti and juniper.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "cacti" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
