mLoy HORTUS JAT\rAICEN SIS, JM^ 



Tiiis rises about five feet high, with a round stem, having rounil, alternate, smootli, 

 purple, brandies, a Utile fiexuose. Leaves two inches long, smooth on both sides, 

 thin, of a green colour, with the, veins [nirplish un lerneath, serrate, acute, standuig 

 on siiort pubescent petioles; stipules iariceolate, smooth, die length of the flowers, 

 deciduous. Flowers congloineiv.te at the axils, sessile, small, whitish. Bractes ovate, 

 the iengtii of tiie flowers ; seguieuts of the calyx ovate -acuminate ; corolla longer thaii 

 the cal) X., 



6. LUPULINA. HOP. 



Hacemes clustered, axitiary ; calyxes inflated, membranaceous ; leaves ovate- 

 cordate, gash-serrate, tomentose underneath. S'-iH. 



Melon S'ce Musk and Water Melon. 



MELON THISTLE. CACTUS. 



Cl. 12, OR. \.Tcosandria iiionogi/nia. Nat. OR. Succulent.T^ 

 Gen. guar. 'iee Indian Fig, p. 40S. 



MELOCACTU?, 



Echiiw melocactus. Sloane, v. 2, p. 159. JJiimilis subroiiindis sut' 

 catus ct coronatus, spinis confertis. Browne, p. 238. 

 Roundish, fourteen or fifteen angled. 

 This is called T'uvks or Papers head, and is common in Jamaica, growing on the 

 tops f old walls, rocks, and in barren places. They thrive with little or no earth to 

 support them. Its roots are stroiig and many, which throw out a large round head of 

 a greenish colour, deeply ribbed, and covered all over with prickles placed star-fashioa. 

 .The skin is thick and juicy, and when the plant is cut through the middle, the insida' 

 is found to be a soft green fleshy substance, very full of moisture. They are frequently 

 a vard or more in circumferente ; the spines on the surface of it were compared to the 

 Lack of a hedge-hog by Liuneus. On the sumuit rises a kind of crown, three or four 

 inches in diameter, made up of redtlish-brown sharp prickles, rising from a downy or 

 cottou-like substance ; from which also proceeds t!ie flower, which is sessile, having 

 many purple pttais, which are long and narrow, coming from a common centre. The 

 pericarp iias its peduncle immersed in the downy substance ; it is taf)ering, about ail 

 inch and a half ui Iengtii, drawing to a.point at. bottom, but blunt at top. On the out- 

 side it is covered with a thin, shining, ll^ht purple-coloure I, mem ranc, containiag- 

 a puip of the same colour, whicli has :i very agreeable acid taste, and containing many 

 black seeds. In times ot drought caitle have been observed to rip open these planta , 

 wiUi their horns, and devour the fleshy moist part. 



See Indian Fig and Torch Thistle. 

 Menow-Weed Hce Spirit-Leat. 



