The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-18
DEATH vALLE1 A GARDEN.
Gorgeous Flowers of she Cactus After
 the Spring Rains. cln l.In

Gorgeous Flowers of she Cactus After the Spring Rains.
 San Francisco Chronicle.
 Think. if you will. of a long, low valley, lying between TWO lofty ranges of barren mountains--a white, glisten- ing sink for a miserable desert river the whole overlaid with a thick, black pail of wind and sand and ashes from the dead craters that fringe It's bor- bers; add all the heat and horrtd fumes of Gehenna. and you nave some idea of Death Valley in summer.
 Wash these mountains clean with three months of almost continuel cloudbursts and rain, rsm in their feet and the whole edge of the valley with foot deep grasses lush and green as any that ever fioored Sierran cienega, sprinkle the white waste with green punches of mesquite all aglow with myriad blossoms, arch over all an Ad- riatic sky. colled with the balmiest of breezes, and you have pictured Death Valley at the oeginnlng 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 many-Pi- ute and desert tramp, teamster and lonely prospector--wnO nave lain down to rise no more beneath its heartless EklEEs BlOWb NuU AAAooA DNAaNhAuA NaA pet of wild flowers to DC found in this bloom famed land or California Not half the plants of Death Valley are known to scientists; most of those that are known are little more than names and will never be more until the pry- ing 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 plantst hat bloom on the desert are the cacti, and the rapidity with which sneir dry and Ap- parently Withered stalks put out blossoms under the touch of the rains is wonderful. The life. of any one of the cacti is the personaficatlon of death and resurrection--and. as they come into fullest bloom on or about Easter, the whole desert far as the eye can reach. seems like one vast cathedral, arched with turquoise fioored with emerald and gayly garbed in giant Easter lilies.
 The largest and showiest blossom ot them all grows on 6 short stocky stem, which, during Jne summer. does not seem to have life enough to pro- duce the magnificent, waxy flowers which, during the summer does not seem to have life enough to produce the magnificent. waxy mowers which are often as much as five inches across, A cactus much larger than this-the barrel cactus--has very small and insignificant bloom. while the tiniest of all low, creeping. Tound-stemmed tointed growth, has an immense pink flower, beautiful as any orchid and rivaling the fairest rose of Persia in its odor.
 Unfortunately. the name of these rare species are not well known, and the commoner varieties. which are also found on the coast slope, bear nc such gorgeous array Sr blossoms old friends greet the traveller on the rim of Death Valley, too. however. There is the cholla (pronounced Choyah) which, while large and many branched, produces few or no flowers reproducing itself by shipping" as oui grandmothers were wont to say ot their choice geranlum~. Wherever aT unusually long branch falls to tho ground 1t seems almost to work its way into the earth, DO soon do tn, shifting sands cover IT, Then a pro cess of roofing takes place. SO that soon an entirely separate plant comel up few feet from the parent. So il is that the great oeds Of cacti are formed throughout the desert.
 One noticeable thing about all the plants in and around Death Valley t' that they grow low 70 the ground for no living thing can stand 'againsi the simoons that sweep this level floor for 200 miles on over into the Nevads