Cactee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 223 
S. coccineum 5 radice crassa, caulibus numerosis rosulato-confertis, foliis subimbricatis linearibus 
integris, corymbis terminalibus paucifloris, petalis oblongis obtusis calyceque rubris.—Tab. 48. f. 3. 
Hab. Boodurwar, near Cashmere. 
83. FICOIDEZ. 
This order, allied to Crassulacee, as well as to Chenopodee and Alsine@, and composed 
chiefly of succulent plants, is found in hot and sandy parts of the world, from the south 
of Europe to the Cape of Good Hope and Van Diemen’s Land. The genus Mesem- 
bryanthemum, out of upwards of 300 species, has only three, in Egypt and Arabia, of 
which one extends to the south of Europe. Seswvium, found on the sea-coast, in the 
hot parts both of the Old and of the New World, has a species, S. repens, near Tran- 
quebar, in the Peninsula of India, and on the opposite coast near Moulmein. Glinus 
lotoides and dictamnoides, which hardly differ from one another, are found in every part 
of India, and the genus in the south of Europe, north of Africa, Arabia, and Egypt. 
The succulent leaves of Tetragonia erpansa, used as a pot-herb in New Zealand, 
have been introduced into England, and might be so into India. Mesembryanthemum 
‘edule and Sesuvium Portulacastrum are used for the same purpose. Other species of 
Mesembryanthemum yield soda, as M. geniculiflorum and nodiflorum, ghasool of Forskal, 
which are probably the plants referred to under this name in Persian works on Materia 
Medica. It is not known what plants are burnt for the purpose of obtaining the soda, 
Sujjee muttee, exported from the shores of the lakes of Western India. 
84. CACTEE. 
Of nearly 200 species of this family at present known, all appear to be natives of 
America, though Dr. Roxburgh has a Cactus Indicus, which he considers to be a native 
of India, as well as a C. Chinensis, from China; Opuntia vulgaris has become so 
common, as to appear a native of the south of Europe. This, growing in the most arid 
situations, and affording a grateful fruit in the hottest weather, has appeared to Colonel 
Herriott, and he is joined in this opinion by the late Mr. Haworth, from the similarity 
of climate and other circumstances, well suited to the north of India, where it would no 
doubt succeed well, and be a valuable acquisition in place of the Cactus now grown 
there, useful only for hedges. ae 
This species, Dr. Roxburgh thirty years ago described as new and common in the 
Peninsula of India. Dr. Ainslie states, that this * species of Opuntia is indigenous in 
India, and is what the wild cochineal insect, when introduced, fed on so voraciously, as 
ered the plant extinct on the Coromandel coast.” It is equally 
and has there a Sanscrit name, nagphuni, applied 
but Professor H. H. Wilson informs me, that he 
is unable to say whether rightfully or not. Messrs. Wight and Arnott consider it, 
from an examination of a drawing of Dr.Wight’s, to be the Opuntia Dillenii, figured in 
5. The Indian plant is certainly like this, but my specimens 
If introduced, it must have been so, long previous to 
the 
almost to have rend 
common in the north of India, 
to it, as in the more southern parts ; 
the Botanical Register, t. 25 
are insufficient for a comparison. 
