HILLS AND ROCKY WOODS 287 



stored, and its leathery skin and few breathing-pores, which pre- 

 vent evaporation, for Hfe in arid regions, where nothing else can 

 grow. 



Some species bear edible, luscious fruit. Upon one — a native 

 of Mexico — the cochineal insect is fed, giving rise to a large in- 

 dustry. In Arizona the fruit of one species of cactus is thrown 

 into the fire till the bristles are burned off. It is then chopped 

 open and fed to cattle. So juicy is this fruit that it supplies 

 drink as well as food for the animals in places where water is 

 often scarce and procured with difficulty. 



The famous night-blooming cereus is a cactus. 



23 

 Pimpinella integerrina. — Family, Parsley. Color, yellow. 

 Leaves, twice or thrice compound, with entire, lance-shaped to 

 ovate leaflets. Time, May. 



Flowers in umbels, with few or no bracts beneath. Stem 

 smooth and slender, about 2\ feet high, much branching. 



24. Upland Boneset 



Eupaiorium sessilifolium. — Family, Composite. Color, 

 white. Leaves, opposite, or 3 in a whorl, tapering from a 

 rounded, broad base to a point ; sessile, toothed, very veiny, 

 3 to 6 inches long. Time, late summer. 



Corollas, tubular, 5 flowers in a head. About 5 feet high; a 

 smooth plant, with soft, downy, compound corymbs of flowers. 



Among the mountains from Massachusetts to Illinois, and 

 southward. 



25. Golden-rod 



Solidago latifolia has a crooked, zigzag stem from i to 3 feet 

 high, smooth, simple, or branched. Leaves, thin, large, 6 inches 

 or less in length, sharply toothed, pointed at apex and base. 

 Flowers, with 3 or 4 rays, the heads clustered in the axils of 

 the leaves, or raceme-like at the ends of the branches. 



Southward among the mountains, northward in dry woods. 



