Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-12-27

The coat-of-arms of Arizona should
be a group of cacti with few lizards
rampant in the foreground, and the back
ground ornamented with Gilla monsters,
tarantulas and centipedes. Such seal
would be unique. and also keep before
the public eye some of the most charac-
teristic features of land Of which the
early conner coined the apt saying that
s'every bush has q thorn, every beast a
sting for the stranger" After a long
residence in this land. however, one finds
the old pioneers ready to do battle on all
points in favor of these sun-scorched
deserts. One of the old-timers tries to
find in the word Arizona the meaning OF
1.-THE beautiful (sic) zone, and with still
more sentiment and less fact, another
SAYS it means, 1.-THE land of the beautiful
maiden, in honor, | presume, of some
ancient squaw. The more matter of-fact
part of the community are willing to
think that it means s'the dry zone, from
ari and IONA. Whatever the name means;
the fact remains that it is a dry zone
of most unpleasant size, as one
soon appreciates after few days march
across its plains.
To the stranger the vast number and
variety of cacti in Southern Arizona are
continual source of interest The
most conspicuous of these is the enor-
nous columnar shaft of the giant can
delabra cactus, the sahuaro of the Mexi
cans. This is only found on the South
ern plains, where it frequently reaches
height of fifty feet. Such examples
are two feet or more in diameter at the
base. The main columns are usually
supplemented at ten or fifteen feet from
the ground by from two to four branches,
which grow out of the trunk and extend
straight up. parallel with it. The col
umns are fluted from + the ground to
the top by alternating deep grooves and
sharp ridges, the latter fringed by
dense growth Of spines. Although
these strange plants grow on the dryest
and most barren plains, yet their pithy
/ trunks are always SO full of water that
/ the stroke of an ak will bring oozing out
small set of drops along the wound
made, and the traveller is sometimes
saved from death by resort to its water
| soaked pith The last of May the tops
! of the columns are fringed by crown
of beautiful tubular white flowers, from
two to three inches long. The base of
this tube contains from few to fifteen
or twenty drops of delicious honey-like
nectar. BY cutting the base of the
| flower just above the base of tho pistil
one can draw into his mouth from the
tube thus opened all the honey. Such
mode Of taking food would be worthy
Of place in fairy lore, and is without
parallel in the writer's experience. In
September these flowers have been re-
placed by u large, soft fruit which the
Mexicans and Indians make into a rude
kind of jelly and pack it away for winter
use in clay pots made by themselves.
The difficulty of securing fruit grow
ing on the top of spiny column from
twenty to forty feet from the ground Is
obvious; but with a very long. slender
pole, armed with a pointed nail on the
end the fruit is speared and brought
safely to hand.
The next largest species Of cactus Is
the prickly pear, which has the lobular,
palm shaped leaves, growing one from
the other, that the familiar small species
growing in the East shows, except that
the prick.y pear grows upright and
sometimes reaches an altitude of twenty
feet, with leaves nearly two feet across
and several inches thick. This species
also has an edible fruit. Then comes an
endless variety of smaller species, all bear
ing beautiful waxy flowers of red. white
or yellow huss in spring. and conspic-
nous array of spines at all times. PbiLG.
dclphio Times.