150 CACTUS FAMILY 



quarter of a dollar. It is easy to stop and pick a flower 

 of this stick-leaf, but difficult not to stop too long and 

 pick too much, for the whole plant lays hold of one, and 

 will part with leaves, seedpods, and branches rather than 



let go. 



The spreading stems are brittle, and are clothed in a 

 shining papery bark; the rest of the plant is covered with 

 minute barbed hairs which cling so tenaciously to gar- 

 ments that the plant may be identified by this character- 

 istic alone. The plant is common in many places in 

 southern Florida. 



Mentzelia floridana. Flowers yellow, about 1 in. across. 

 Sepals 5, petals 5, stamens many. Stems 2-6 ft. long. Leaves 

 alternate, broadest at base, somewhat 3-lobed, toothed, 1-3 in. 

 long, very adhesive. Thickets. Blooming all the year. 

 South Fla. 



CACTUS FAMILY {Cactaceae) 



Plants with thick, fleshy, green, jointed or angled, leafless stems. 

 Flowers showy, yellow or white, petals many. Fruit pulpy. 



Night-Blooming Cacti (Genera Hylocereus and 



Harrisia) 



Among the strange growths in South Florida hammocks 

 are species of night-blooming cacti, whose fleshy stems 

 push like spiny green snakes through the bushes, and up 

 the trunks of trees. The strawberry pear, Hylocereus tri- 

 angularis, has three-angled stems, immense white flowers, 

 six to eight inches across, and large scarlet fruit, three 

 to four inches long, in which many tiny black seeds are 

 embedded in a crisp, sweet, edible pulp. It is only occa- 

 sionally, however, that fruit matures. The prickly apple, 

 Harrisia, has cylindrical fluted or ribbed branches, some- 

 what smaller flowers, and yellowish fruit. 



