N. ORD.—CACTACEA 
GENUS.—OPUNTIA,* TOURN. 
SEX. SYST.—ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA, 
OVruN TTA, 
PRICKLY PEAR. 
SYN.—OPUNTIA VULGARIS, MILL.; O. ITALICA, TEN.; O. HUMIFUSUS, 
AND O. MARITIMA AND HUMIFUSA, RAF.; O. INTERMEDIA, SALM.; 
CACTUS OPUNTIA, LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—PRICKLY PEAR, INDIAN FIG. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH FLOWERS AND GREEN OVARIES OF OPUNTIA 
VULGARIS, LINN, 
Description.—This curious, low, pale, prostrate, spreading plant is character- 
ized as follows: Branches (?) more or less assurgent; jozués flat, broadly ovate, 
the younger ones leafy, the older prickly; /eaves minute ovate-subulate, appressed, 
deciduous, arranged spirally about the joints; axz/s more or less bristly with numer- 
ous short, barbed prickles; spives rarely present, when found they are whitish in 
the north and yellowish southward, and vary from two-thirds to one and one- 
quarter inches long. L[nflorescence consisting of a few sessile, solitary flowers 
along the apical ridge of the joints; flowers large, sulphur-yellow, not ephemeral ; 
perianth not united into a prolonged tube, but regular and spreading. Sefa/s ovate- 
lanceolate, tapering to a point. /eéa/s ample, the inner roundish, S/amens numer- 
ous, shorter than the larger petal; f/aments glabrous ; anthers linear, versatile. 
Ovary 1-celled, obovate ; style cylindrical, narrowed at the base; s¢gmzas about 6, 
in two sets, clavate. /vuzt an obovoid, nearly smooth, crimson, pulpy and edible 
berry, having a deep depression at the apex showing the scars of the perianth, 
Seeds numerous, flattish-reniform, with a rounded ridge extending over the arch 
opposite the hilum; emdryo curved around the thin albumen; cotyledons large, 
becoming foliaceous. 
Cactacess.—This large and peculiar family of thick and fleshy plants is repre- 
sented in North America by 5 genera, containing in all 142 species and 39 recog- 
nized varieties. Its characteristics are as follows: Stems globular or columnar and 
angled, composed of numerous compressed joints. Leaves usually absent or rep- 
resented by spines, thorns or bristles. Flowers solitary, sessile. Sepals and petals 
similar and evolute, numerous and imbricated in several rows, all adherent to the 
ovary. Stamens numerous; filaments long and slender, inserted into a ring formed 
by the union of the sepals and petals. .S¢y/es united into one; stigmas numerous. 
Fruit a berry; seeds numerous, campylotropous, finally becoming separate from 
the placentz and loose in the pulp; placenta several, parietal ; a/bumen scanty. 
the country of the Opuntiani, whose chief city was Opus, near Phocis, 
* A Theophrastian name for some species growing in 
