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Show Mexico Reveals Many Interesting Varieties of Cactus Cephalocereus hoppenstedtii is one of the rarer of the old man group. It is also referred to as one of the torch cactuses, as it takes very little imagination to make it such, when moonlight or late sunlight sun-light finds a reflector in the mass of beautiful white spines. In its natural habitat it reaches a height of ten meters. Not less fascinating than these normal forms are the strange shapes produced when something goes wrong with nature's control of growth. The red cockscomb found in many gardens has been developed devel-oped through many years of selec-. tion and is propagated from seed. In cactuses such forms are especially espe-cially interesting. While the cause of this phenomenon is a controversial contro-versial subject, scientists agree that in certain cases it is hereditary. From Mexico come many interesting interest-ing species of the Cactaceae. Many of these have been discovered only recently, writes E. C Hummel in Nature Magazine. One of the comparatively com-paratively new discoveries is the Mamillaria hahniana, known as the Old Lady of Mexico. This was discovered dis-covered in 1929 in Central Mexico, where it grows in large clusters, completely cloaked in long, fine hair. During the blooming season it wears a crown of pink or rose flowers. Little less conspicuous is the crown of red berries that is later pushed from between the flowering tubercles, tuber-cles, to remain for weeks like a crown of rubies on a white-haired lady. One of the most difficult plans to locate is Roseocactus kotschubey-anus, kotschubey-anus, which belongs to the living rock group of the Cactaceae. On account of the shape of its tubercles, it carries the common name of deer-foot deer-foot cactus. It has a large tuberous root and the entire plant is sunken entirely in the ground. Here it is safe from the eyes of the collector until blooming time, when the large pink flowers that arise from the center cen-ter disclose its presence. |