CLASS 1C0SANDRIA. ill 



according to the genera and species, from even 7, or 

 9, to a thousand. Our present class then includes a 

 part of that of the former indefinite Dodecandria, or 

 all plants with an irregular, or uncertain number of 

 stamens, from 9 to 1000 ; but often about 20, as the 

 name Icosandria would imply, inserted upon the sides 

 of the calyx. 



In the first order, or Monogynia, of this class, you 

 will find Cactus, a genus chiefly peculiar to South 

 America, forming almost the exclusive type of a nat- 

 ural order of the same name, Cacti. These are succu- 

 lent or fleshy plants, mostly destitute of leaves, and 

 many, in their native warm climates, attain to con- 

 siderable trees. They are generally beset with clusters 

 of radiating spines ; have angular, jointed, erect, or 

 prostrate stems ; and very considerable, and often mag- 

 nificent flowers, some of which open exclusively in the 

 evening. They divide themselves, however, into sev- 

 eral natural sections, if not genera, and so elude any 

 general description. Our only northern and common 

 species in sandy fields and wastes, is the C. opuntia, 

 the type of a section Opuntia, or Indian Fig, in which 

 the whole plant consists of roundish, flat, or Fig-shap- 

 ed joints proliferously protruded from each other, at 

 an early stage covered with small cylindric scattered 

 leaves, and, at length, clothed with spines and insidi- 

 ous bristles. From these joints are also protruded 

 large, pale yellow flowers, formed of numerous petals, 

 arranged in several series. The calyx seldom, and 

 never essentially, distinct from the petals, consists of 

 many imbricated segments. The stigma is many cleft. 

 The berry inferior, 1-celled, and many seeded, filled 

 with a very slow ripening glutinous pulp. The flow- 

 ers of this species open only to the sun, and the nu- 

 merous stamens, when touched, show a very evident 

 sensibility, approach the stigma, and at length nearly 

 close the corolla. 



