OPUNTIA. 



O. Trbodi, from the crevices of Troodos in Crete., is a twin to 

 0. nanum in minute habit, but has even smaller leafage (not rough, 

 but clad in tighter-ironed downy hairiness), and very much smaller 

 yellowish flowers huddled in a head. 



0. velutinum only differs from 0. nanum, the beautiful, in a soft 

 and velvety, not bristlish, vesture, in denser clumps of rather smaller 

 blossom, and in leaves that lack the midrib beneath and the rolled 

 edge. (Alpine region of the Bithynian Olympus.) 



Onosmodium xnolle (and O. occidentale, of which it is a variety) 

 are Borragineous plants of no noticeable merit. 



Ophelia, a family of Gentianaceous plants, closely allied to 

 Swertia, and sometimes merged in Swertia. Their treatment is the 

 same, and their attractions on a par. 



Opuntia, with Cereus and Echinocereus. — As most of the 

 members of all these races make no pretence at being either hardy or 

 useful generally out of doors, it is only necessary to note some of the 

 more indestructible, that those who like this kind of thing may find 

 these the kind of things they like : for, if you can pardon the arid 

 and unfriendly look of these plants, dusty in colour, and horrible with 

 spines, Rackhamish in weird contortions and Anglo-Saxon attitudes 

 of their indecent stalagmites and ribbed articulations and stars of 

 thorns and mop-heads of frowzy wool or fat great tennis-rackets of 

 dim-green flesh — if you can forgive or enjoy all this, I say, you may 

 easily devote a hot bank of the rockwork to such treasures, any very 

 light soil being sufficient in a warm well-drained situation. Glass 

 should be put over them to keep off wet in winter ; and then in due 

 time, out of their stony grievousness of appearance your confidence (as 

 the Beauty's in the Beast) will be rewarded bj^ the unfolding of their 

 most pure and delicate flowers like heavenly roses, seeming unnatural 

 and misplaced as they protrude in July and August from the dark 

 inhospitable leaf or column, looking as if they had been freakishly 

 pinned there by a thorn, rather than developed in any legitimate 

 course of nature. Among the hardiest and best of Opuntias are : 

 0. arborescens, with a branching stem, which, however, relies too greatly 

 upon the charm of its bare branches, for it has never been known to 

 flower in England ; 0. arenaria is more dwarf, with oval stem- 

 branches and yellow flowers ; quite close to this are 0. fragilis 

 and 0. brachyantha. 0. caminanchica takes high rank in all 

 respects ; it is a specially sturdy grower and free-flowerer, with 

 large flattened joints, and yellow blossoms that vary to red in the 

 form rubra, and have also a major development. 0. cantabrigiensis 

 has the largest joints of all the hardy Cacti, and the usual yellow 



(1.996) 17 II.— b 



