New-York tribune., 1906-08-26
DEATH VALLEY A GARDEN.
Gorgeous Flowers of the Cactus After the
Spring Rains.

Think il you will, of a long. low valley, lying
between two lofty ranges of barren mountains
"a white. glistening sink for a miserable desert
river-the whole overlaid with thick. black pail
of wind and sand and ashes from the dead crat-
ers that fringe its borders. add all the heat and
horrid fumes of Gehenna, and you have some
idea OF Death Valley in summer.
Wash these mountains clean with three
months of almost continual cloudburst and
rain. rim in their feet and the whole edge of
the valley with foot deep grasses, lush and
green as any that ever foored Sierran cienesa,
sprinkle the white waste with green punches Of
mesquite all aglow with myriad blossoms. arch
over all an Adriatio sky. cooled with the balm
lest of breezes. and you have pictured Death
Valley at the beginning Of spring. On the face
of the green earth lies no more terrible bit Of
world In summer; no more beautiful one in
spring.
And over the graves of mauy-Piute and
desert tramp. teamster and lonely prospectOr-.
who have lain down 20 rise no more beneath
its heartless skies, slows the most beautiful
carpet OF wild flowers TO be found in this bloom
famed land of California. Not half the plants
of Death Valley are known 10 scientists; most
of those that are known are little more than
names. and will never be more until the prying
arm of the railroad shall have laid bare some OF
the secrets of this Vale of Hinnom.
Most beautiful and most plenty, Of course, of
all these plants that bloom on the desert are the
cacti, and the rapidity with which their dry
and apparently withered stalks put out bios
SONS under the touch of the rains is wonderful
The life OF any one OF the cact is the persQnifi-
cation Of death and resurrection-and, as they
come into fullest bloom about Easter the
whole desert. far the eye can reach, seems
like one vast cathedral arched with turquoise,
foored with emerald and gayly garbed In giant
Easter lilies.
The largest and showIest blossom of them all
grows on a short, stocky stem. which. during
the summer, does not seem 20 have life enough
to produce the magnificent. waxy flowers, which
often much five inches across. A cac-
tus much larger than this-the barrel cactus
has very small and Insignificant bloom while
the tiniest of all, low, creeping round stemmed
jointed growth. has an immense pink flower
beautiful any orchid and rivallnG the farest
rose of Persia In it's odOr.
Unfortunately, the name OF these rare species
are not well known. and the cOmmOner VaTie-
ties. which also found on the coast slope
bear no such gorgeous array of blossoms. Old
friends greet the traveller on the rim OF Death
Valley, too, however. There is the chOlla (pro-
nOunced chOyah) which, while large and many
branched. produces few or no flowers. reprOduc-
ing itself by slipping" grandmOthers
wont to say of their choice geraniums.
Wherever an unusually long branch falls to the
ground it seems almost TO work its way into
the earth. so soon do the shifting sands cover it,
Then q process of roofing takes place. so that
soon an entirely separate plant comes UP few
feet from the parent. So il is that the great
beds of cactI are formed throughout the desert.
One noticeable thing about ell the plants IN
and around Death Valley is that they grow low
10 the ground-for no living thing can stand
against the sn1OOHs that sweep this level floor
for two hundred miles on over into the Nevada
desert These low growers protect themselves
from the drifting sand In wonderfully IN
renlous manner When the plant first breaks
from the ground it comes I'D not IN one stem. rs