How can cactus plants live in the waterless deserts?
If the regions we call deserts were totally waterless, cactuses could not grow there. But nearly every spot on the earth gets a certain quota of rainfall. Deserts get less than their share. A few are too dry to support even cactuses, though an assortment of wind blown seeds waits hopefully in the arid soil. The plant world asks very little of the earth and its basic needs are found almost everywhere. It needs sunshine and moisture and crumbly soil that contains a diet of certain chemicals. As a rule, we have to fertilize our farmlands to replace the plant food chemicals used by our yearly crops. Sometimes we have to irrigate with extra water to help our cultivated plants to do their best. But in the wilds, plants adjust themselves to the limits of various regions. The plant kingdom happens to have many remarkable qualities. For one thing, it has a stubborn determination to survive and expand to occupy every spot of useable ground. Plants strive hard to make the very best of hardships a
