OPUNTIA. 
tives of Peru, introduced by the 
first Spaniards who visited that 
country, into Spain. The fruit, 
which we call the Prickly Pear, 
but which is called Turfa in Spain, 
is so great a favourite in that coun- 
try, that Karwinsky teils us, in 
September, hundreds of venders sit 
in the streets of the Spanish towns 
busily employed in stripping the 
fruit off the branches which have 
been gathered loaded with it; their 
hands and arms being fearfully 
swollen with the spines which they 
have not leisure to avoid, so great 
is the impatience of the purchasers 
to obtain the fruit. He adds that 
many Spaniards will eat above a/| 
hundred Prickly Pears in one day ; 
and that some indulge to such an 
excess, that they bring on cholera, 
which is often attended by death, 
especially if the sufferer attempts to 
mitigate his disease by drinking 
brandy. The cochineal insect is 
bred on Opuntia cochinillifera, or 
the Nopal tree, a native of Mexico, 
and much more tender than the 
common kind. A white woolly sub- 
stance appears on the leaf-like stems 
of the tree, like the American blight 
on apple trees; and this substance 
conceals the female cochineal in- 
sect, which is a kind of coccus or 
scale, resembling that on the pine- 
apple and the vine. The male in- 
sect is winged, and it is only the fe- 
male that produces the dye. When 
fully grown the insects are brushed 
off the plant with the tail of a squir- 
rel or a deer; and they are killed 
by drying them in ovens, which 
makes them curl up, and in this 
state they are ready for sale. It is 
on account of the value attached to 
the cochineal as an article of com- 
merce, that a branch of the Nopal 
tree is mea iced into the arms of 
the republic of Mexico. 
All the kinds of Opuntia require 
_abundance of dry air and intense 
solar light, and on this account, 
302 
ORANGERY. 
they do best in the open air ona 
sunny bank sheltered by a wal! 
facing the south. In a stove, espe- 
cially if other plants be grown in 
it requiring a moist temperature, 
the Opuntias never produce either 
flowers or fruit; and, indeed, often 
die without any apparent cause. It 
is hardly possible for any situation 
to be too hot and dry for these 
plants, as, like all the plants des- 
tined to live in burning sands, they 
are furnished with very few stomata 
or breathing pores, whilst they have 
abundant organs of absorption to 
draw as much moisture as possible 
from the soil; and thus they are 
enabled to sustain heat that would 
dry up and wither any plants not 
succulent. On the other hand, 
these very qualities render them 
easily injured by a superabundance 
of moisture, as they have no means 
of getting rid of it ; and it soon oc- 
casions them to damp off, or in 
other words, to rot. The best soil 
to grow Opuntias in, is a mixture 
of very sandy loam with broken 
bricks and rubbish from old walls ; 
they require but little water at any 
season, except when going into flow- 
er, and then less than any of the 
other kinds of Cacti. They are 
propagated by cuttings, which must 
be taken off at a joint and laid on a 
shelf for two or three days to dry 
before planting; in order that the 
superfluous moisture may escape. 
When planted they should not be 
watered ; and when young plants 
are raised from seed, they also 
should not be watered when they 
are transplanted. See Ca’crus. 
Orancery.—A house intended 
only for Orange trees may be opaque 
at the back, and even the roof, 
with lights only in front, provided 
the plants be set out during sum- 
mer. In fact, so that the plants 
are preserved from the frost, they 
will do with scarcely any light dur- 
ing winter; and in many parts of 
