mersmith nursery. It belongs to the section of the Genus 
arranged under the appellation of “ Echinomelocacti,” or 
“ Melon-Thistles,” from the form and armature of the spe- 
cies of which it consists, Some of these strange-looking 
vegetables are said to exceed two yards in girth in their na- 
tive places, and are composed of a succulent green flesh of 
one consistence throughout. In times of drought they are 
known to be sought for by the cattle, who after stripping 
off their spiny covering with their horns, devour them 
greedily. The entire genus, with the exception of C. 
Opuntia, common to both Europe and America, is 
spontaneous in the West Indian Islands, and the warmer 
parts of the american continent; where its numerous aud 
multiform species are said to grow from fissures in the sides 
of: the steepest rocks. The fruit (or fig or pear, as it is 
sometimes called from its shape) is esculent in most of 
them. 
'The present specimen, the only one we have seen of the 
species, was not much more than three inches high, of an 
oblong cylindrical form, depressed at the summit, somewhat 
narrowed towards the base, and had 16 angles or ribs. Each 
rib or angle consists of a vertical rank of tubercles of two 
different forms, alternating one with the other, one sort 
having a depressed tomentose crown, armed with a diver- 
gênt fascicle of about 7 or 8 horny acicular thorns, the other 
sort narrower, free from all pubescence and armature, 
and projecting much beyond the other. The flowers spring 
from the axils of the uppermost thorny fascicles, which ter- 
minate each rib at the outer edge of the depressed thornless - 
tesselated area of the summit of the plant; these in this. 
instance were two, nearly 3 inches in length, externally of 
a reddish or liver-coloured green, internally white, scent 
less. Corolla composed of numerous obcuneately ligulate 
petals, arranged in several imbricating ranks. ermen 
about an inch long enclosed within the green cylindrical 
outwardly loose-scaled persistent calyx. : 
— 
« A flower dissected vertically, to show the stamens, style, stigmah: 
sad the interior of the germen enclosed in the persistent tubular porter, 
) Calyx. iif 
te 
