Y tetti 
1928 
* PERÉSKIA aculeáta. 
West Indian Qocscber di. 
ki: | 4 
ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. CAcTACER. 
PERESKIA. Supra, vol. 17. fol. 1473. 
P. aculeata ; foliis ellipticis, aculeis in axillà solitariis demùm in caule fascicu- 
latis, floribus subpaniculatis, fructu globoso sepala foliacea gerente. De 
Cand. Prodr. 3. 474. 
Grossularia americana. Plum. gen. t. 26. 
Cactus Pereskia. Linn. sp. pl. 671. 
I do not find a figure of this common plant in any of our 
English books; a circumstance that is perhaps to be ac- 
counted for by its seldom flowering. In fact it is usually 
cultivated as astock on which other species of Cactaceous 
plants may be grafted, rather than for the sake of its own 
flowers and fruit. 
And yet the latter are not without their beauty. The 
flowers have not indeed the deep brilliant colours of the 
more popular plants of the order; but they form fine clus- 
ters of. white and green cups, and the fruit is like a rich 
mellow gooseberry; whence the colonial name of West 
Indian Gooseberry. ; 
In the whole genus Pereskia, and in this species in par- 
ticular, the leaves are as large, and fully organised as in 
any plants whatever; and the woody matter of the stem is 
one of the best illustrations that physiologists are acquainted 
* See folio 1473, 
VOL. XXIII. CC 
