s 
THE CLASSICAL PLANTS OF SICILY. 121 
CACTI. 
56. Cactus Opuntia.—Common Indian Fig.—Bot. Mag. 
vot. |, t. 2393. 
Káxroc, Theoph. lib. vi. cap. 4.—It is not mentioned by 
Dioscorides. Theophrastus relates, that this plant grew only 
in Sicily, and not in Greece. In Athens it is named Aez(»suxz— 
Arabian Fig—according to Dodwell. The leaves, or stems, 
xavo, were called x«xre, they were prickly, and the skin 
being taken off, they were eatable, when pickled in brine, 
&^u*» The fruit was also eaten. See Athen. lib. ii. and Pliny, 
Hist. Nat. lib. xxi. cap. 16.— Theocritus, Idyl, x. v. 4. has,— 
Gis moiuves vüg vb» móða xdxrog tru pe,— a sheep, whose foot the 
Cactus had wounded. The Indian Fig, Ficu d' India, 
although so long naturalized in Sicily, was most probably in- 
troduced from Africa. It flourishes on the bare lava at 
Catania, where are the largest plants I saw in Sicily. It 
grows in the most sterile ground, in sand, in the fissures of 
rocks, among old buildings, and in walls, sometimes to above 
twelve feet high, and its stem exceeding a foot in diameter. 
The figs are at first green, but when ripe, change to a reddish 
yellow. They are very juicy, sweet, wholesome, and refresh- 
ing; the leaves produce an abundance of them the whole 
summer. A variety, bearing dark-red figs, is cultivated at 
Catania, and esteemed delicious. 
It is propagated by planting single leaves in the earth. 
The Cactus and the American Aloe make an impenetrable 
hedge. ‘ 
ARALIACEJE. 
57. Hedera chrysocarpum.— P/in.— Yellow-berried Ivy. 
I believe no systematic work on Botany has yet described 
this ancient plant. Tournefort is one of the earliest authors 
in modern times who has mentioned it, and who discovered 
it in Greece. He states, ‘les feuilles sont d'un vert plus 
gai que celles du lierre commun, et ses bouquets couleur d'or 
Seconp SERIES, Q 
