Class XL— ICOSANDRIA, 



Order L— MONOGYNIA. 



225. CACTUS. L. (Indian Fig, Melon This- 

 tie, &c.) 



Calix superior, multifid, segments imbricate. 

 Petals numerous, arranged in several series, 

 those of the interior larger. Stigma many- 

 cleft. Berry umbilicate, many-seeded. 



Arborescent, shrubby and herbaceous species of vaf ious 

 forms, remarkably carnose, articulated and proliferous, 

 but usually destitute of proper leaves, mostly producing 

 divergent clusters of spines intermixed with tenaceous and 

 pungent bristles or pubescence. 



f Melocactus. roundish. 



Species. 1. C. mamillaris. Tubercles ovate terete, 

 bearded; flowers scarcely exserted; berries scarlet about 

 equal with the tubercles. — On the high hills of the 

 Missouri probably to the mountains. A species which 

 was hitherto supposed solely indigenous to the tropical 

 parts of America. It appears to be smaller than the West 

 India plant. 2. *viviparus. Cespitose; .ylomeruli subglo- 

 bose; tubercles cylindric-ovate, bearded, marked above 

 with a proliferous groove; flowers central large and ex- 

 serted; exterior segments of the calix, ciliate; fruit ficiform, 

 greenish. Hab. With the above, on the summits of gra- 

 velly bills; flowering from June to August; flowers large 

 and bright-red, almost similar to those of C.Jlagclliformis. 

 Obs. Nearly allied to the preceding in habit, but differ- 

 ing probably from every other species of this section by 

 the remarkable proliferous tendency of its leaves, which 

 not unfrequently multiply to the destruction of the parent 

 plant, it consequently never becomes so large as C- mamil- 

 loris; inhabiting a climate which is scarcely temperate, 

 from the great elevation of the land above the level of the 

 sea, these 2 species in this country produce long and 

 somewhat fusiform roots, penetrating deep into the. earth; 

 towards the approach of winter the upper part of the 



