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j only a slight protection from frost 

 ■ during wiuter ; and they grow freely 

 ; in the south of Europe. The har- 

 diest kind is Opuntla vulgaris, of 

 : which there are forests on ]\Iount 

 I Etna, growing in chinks and crevices 

 j in the rocks, where there appears 

 • scarcely soil enough to contain their 

 i roots. They are equally abundant 

 ; in the rocky districts of Spain, where 

 they grow so vigorously and so appa- 

 , rently in a state -of nature, that a 

 I doubt has arisen whether they are 

 not natives of Spain transported at 

 I a very early period to South America, 

 j instead of being, as is generally sup- 

 ' posed, natives of Peru, introduced 

 by the first Spaniards who visited 

 I that country, into Spain. The fruit, 

 i which we call the Prickly Pear, but 

 j which is called Tuna in Spain, is so 

 j great a favourite in that country, 

 i that Karwinski tells us, in Septem- 

 ber hundreds of vendors sit in the 

 streets of the Spanish towns, busily 

 employed in stripping the fmit off 

 the branches which have been gath- 

 ered loaded with it ; their hands and 

 arms being fearfully swollen with the 

 spines, Avhich 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 at- 

 tempts to mitigate his disease by 

 drinking brandy. The cochineal 

 insect is bred on Opuntia cochinilli- 

 fei-a, or the Nopal tree, a native of 

 Mexico, and much more tender than 

 the common kind. A white woolly 

 substance appears on the leaf-like 

 stems of the tree, like the American 

 blight on Apple-trees ; and this sub- 

 stance conceals the female cochineal 

 insect, -which is a kind of coccus or 

 scale, resembling that on the Pine- 



apple and the Vine. The male 

 insect is winged, and it is only the 

 female that produces the dye. When 

 fully grown, the insects are brushed 

 off the plant with the tail of a squir- 

 rel or deer ; and they are killed by 

 drying them in ovens, which makes 

 them curl up, and in this state they i 

 are ready for sale. It is on account 

 of the value attached to the cochineal 

 as an article of commerce, that a 

 branch of the Nopal tree is intro- 

 duced 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 they 

 do best in the open air on a sunny 

 bank sheltered by a wall facing the 

 south. In a stove, especially if 

 other plants be grov/n 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 possi- 

 ble for any situation to be too hot 

 and dry for these plants, as, like all 

 the plants destined to live in burning 

 sands, they are furnished with very 

 few stoma ta or breathing pores, 

 whilst they have abundant organs 

 of absorption to draw as much mois- 

 ture 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 superabun- 

 dance of moisture, as they have no 

 means of getting rid of it ; and it 

 soon occasions them to damp off, oi', 

 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 flower, and 

 then less than any of the other kinds 

 of Cacti. They are propagated by 

 cuttings, which must be taken off at 



