As the traveller crosses one of the open forests of this tree, which is often twenty-five feet high, the more distant ones appear to beckon like some uncanny desert octopus yearning to draw him within reach of those scrawny arms.
The blossom of this monstrous growth is a revelation, so unexpected is it.

A group as large as one's head, pure white, on the extremity of a dagger-covered bough, it is like an angel amidst bayonets.

The pitahaya, often more than thirty feet high and twelve to twenty-four inches diameter, is a fit companion for the Joshua, with an equally startling blossom.
"To go out on the desert...

and meet these cacti is like whispering into the ear of the Sphinx, and listening at her locked lips,...

and to go out in April and see them suddenly abloom is as though the lips of the Sphinx should part and utter solemn words.