116 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



all formed of the common Prickly Pear, which makes an impassable 

 boundary. What an excellent protection it would be on the glacis of 

 fortifications, better than any 'abattis/ as fire will not burn it, nor 

 artillery injure it, and it is impassable to man or horse ! Sir Hans 

 Sloane, in his history of St. Kitt's, mentions that when the island be- 

 longed to the English and French, a law was passed, directing a triple 

 row of Prickly Pear to be planted across the island, as the boundary 

 between the two quarters, so as to put a stop to the perpetual attacks 

 which they were in the habit of making on each other. The juice of 

 the fruit of this Cactus is a beautiful blood-red dve, and is much used 

 here for colouring jellies and confectionery, and, I believe, cloth. We 

 have also a Cactus called the French Prickly Pear, something like the 

 other, without the thorns, and I do not think it often bears flowers, at 

 least I have never seen it in flower. The only thing remarkable about 

 this Cactus is its supposed hair-growing properties, when the leaf is 

 split open and applied to the head as a hair-wash ; it makes a beautiful 

 lather, and whether it makes the hair grow or not, is a very pleasant 

 wash. I have lately imported the Nopal Cactus (or Cactus cochinel- 

 lifer, Linn.), with a view of propagating the cochineal, and my plants 

 are growing beautifully, and will be ready for the reception of the in- 

 sect in a few months, A beautiful dwarf Cactus grows here, the flower 

 of which is exactly like the star- fish. I do not know if this is any 

 curiosity ; if so, I would send you a few plants. 



In the Palm tribe we have not a great variety. Our woods abound 

 with the Mountain Cabbage-Palm (Areca rnontana ? Ed.) ; and we have 

 also the noble Palmetto Royal, described by Sigou, which grows to an 

 immense height. We have also forests of the Gru-Gru Palm and the 

 Mocoio ; we have also some beautiful specimens of the Areca Palm, 

 whicli is very like the Palmetto Eoyal, and the Screw-Pine Palm* or 

 Patidanus: I can send you seeds or young plants of any of these. 

 But I must not omit to mention a dwarf Palm, which grows in the 

 Island of Anguilla, a dependency of this Government. I never saw 

 this Palm anywhere else, and do not know the name ; it grows over 

 the whole island, and is called by some the Dwarf Palm, and by the 

 Anguillans the Thatch Palm. I see Coleridge describes it as the 

 " Tier-Palm, the smallest and most delicate species of that great Fa- 



* Probably the Ptvidamis candelabrum, P. dc Beauv., introduced from the coast 

 of West Africa. Ed. 



