('.\(Ti;. OK I'KICKLY PKAKS 



By JOHN SHIRLEY, D.Sc, and C. A. 

 LAMBERT 



{Rfa'J before fhe Royal Society of Queendand, Jt(ne29(h, 1914) 



1 . — Introductory. 



No plant of the Cactus family is a native of Australia : 

 their native home is America ; they inhabit the drier 

 districts of the S.W. United States, Mexico, the West Indies, 

 Central America, and the warmer parts of South America. 

 Just as the name of Mr. Walter Hill is often held up for 

 scorn as the introducer of the so-called Sida retvsa into 

 Queensland, when he merely carried it from one part of 

 Queensland to another, recognising its possibilities as a 

 fibre plant, so various persons have been given the credit, 

 or discredit, of introducing different Cacti into Australia. 

 Mr. J. H. Maiden,* Government Botanist of New South 

 Wales, a most diligent and methodical investigator of 

 plants of this famil}-, has shown that their introduction 

 to Australia was due to Governor Phillip, and that the first 

 cuttings were brought out by the fleet that founded Sydney, 

 and took possession of Australia on behalf of the Empire. 



2. — Peculiarities of tfie Cactus Family. 



The ideal country for the establishment of the Cacti, 

 known to us as Prickly Pears, is one in which a rainy season 



*A preliminary Study of the Prickly Pears naturalised in New South 

 Wales; Dejiartment of Agiiculture, X..S.W., Miscellaneous Publication, 

 Kg. 253 



