S74 JLXI. CACTACE^. Opuni-ia. 



diam. Petioles downy. Flowers greenish-white. Fruit mostly covered with 

 long prickles, brownish-purple, eatable. May, Jn. 

 j ' 7. R. ROTUNDiFOLiUM. Michx. (R. triflorum. Willd.) Wild Gooseberry, 

 ;.^- St. M'ithout prickles; subaxiUarij spines mostly solitary, short; Ivs. round- 

 ish, smooth, 3 — 5-lobed, incisely dentate ; pcd. smooth, 1 — 3-flowered ; cat. cyl- 

 iiidrical, smooth; 'pet. spatulate, unguiculate; sta. exserted, smooth, much 

 longer than the petals; s/;/. hairy, exserted, deeply 2 — 3-clett ; ^CTv/es smooth. — 

 In woods, N. H. to N. Car. and Mo. Shrub 3— 4fhigh. Stems with a whit- 

 ish bark. Leaves 1 — 2' diam. mostly truncate at base, shining above. Pe- 

 tioles ciliate, 1 — 3' long. Petals white. Fruit purple, delicious, resembling 

 the garden gooseberry. May. 



8. R. LACUSTRE. Poir. Swamp Gooseberry. 



St. covered with prickles ; subaxillary spines several ; Ivs. deeply 3 — 5-lobed, 

 cordate at base, lobes deeply incised ; rcw. 5 — 8-flowered, pilose ; cal. rotate ; 

 berries small, hispid. — In swamps. Northern States, and British Am. Shrub 

 3 — 4f high. Stems reddish from the numerous prickles, which differ from the 

 spines only in size. Leaves shining above, IJ — 2^' diam. Petioles ciliate, 

 hispid, longer than the leaves. Flowers green. Fruit covered with long prickles, 

 dark-purple, disagreeable. May. — The older stems are unarmed, save with a 

 few spines. 



9. R. HiRTELLUM. Michx. (R. triflorum. Bw. R. saxosum. Hook.) 



St. unarmed, rarely prickly ; subaxiUari/ spi7ies short, solitary, or nearly 

 so ; Ivs. roundish, cordate, 3 — 5-lobed, toothed, pubescent beneath ; ped. short, 

 1 — 2-flowered ; calyx tiibe smooth, campanulate ; segments twice longer than 

 the petals ; sta. longer than either ; sty. hairy, 2-cleft ; fr. smooth. — In rocky 

 woods, N. H. and Mass. to Wisconsin, N. to Hudson's Bay. Leaves 9 — 18" 

 diam., generally cleft half way to the middle. Flowers nodding, greenish.. 

 Fruit purple. May, Jn. 



10. R. UvA-CRisPA. (R. Grossularia. Willd. and \st edit.) English or Gar- 

 den Gmseberry. — St. prickly; Ivs. roundish, 3 — 5-lobed, hairy beneath, on short, 

 hairy petioles; ped. hair)^, 1-flowered; cal. campanulate; sly. and ova. hairy; 

 fr. smooth or hairy, globose. — Native in England, and long cultivated until 

 there are several hundred varieties, with red, white, green and amber fruit, 

 often weighing an ounce or more each. Apr. 



Order LXI. CACTACE^.— Indian Figs. 



St. succulent and shrubby, usually angular or 2 edged. 



hva. almost always wanting, when present, fleshy, smooth and entire. 



F/»- sessile, usually showy and of short duration. 



Cal.— ^ Sepals and petals numerous, often indefinite and confoimded with each other, the sepals from 



Cot. — \ the surface, and the petals from the summit of ovary. 



Sta. indefinite. Fll. long and filiform. Anth. ovate, versatile. 



Ova. inferior, fleshy, Icelled, with parietal placenta;. 



Sty. single, filiform, with several anthers in a star-like cluster. 



Tr. succulent, l-celled, many-seeded. 



S6.S. without albumen, with thick, foliaceous cotyledons, or often with scarcely any. 



Genera 16, species about 800, all peculiarly American, no one having ever been found in any other 

 quarter of the globe. They are chiefly confined within the tropics, only two or three species having been 

 found beyond them. The prickly Pear (Opuntia vulgaris) is the only species found native as far north 

 as New York. 



Conspectus of the Genera. 



S Axis cylindric Cereiis. 3 



<tubular-campaniilate, rose-colored, &c. (Axis globose. Meloeactus. 3 



Flowers (somewhat rotate, yellow , Opuntia. 1 



1. OPUNTIA. Tourn. 



Opuntiana was a country near Phocis, where this was said to be naturalized. 



Sepals and petals numerous, adnate to the ovary, not produced 

 into a tube above it ; stamens 00, shorter than the petals ; style with 

 numerous, thick, erect stigmas ; berry umbilicate at apex, tubercu- 

 late ; ©otyledons semiterete. — Shrubby plants., with articulated branches., 

 the joints usually broad and flattened., ivith fascicles of prickles regularly 

 arranged upon the surface. 



