12 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
CACTACEA, 
Tuna,' Opuntia Ficus-Indica,? and of other species. The fruit of Opuntia Ficus-Indica, now natural- 
ized in most warm dry regions, and of several other species is refreshing, and is consumed in considerable 
quantities in semitropical countries ;* and Opuntia Opuntia,* which grows on the Atlantic coast from 
Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, ii. 398. —Cock- 
erell, Am. Nat. xxvii. 1041 [Notes on the Cochineal Insect].) 
Since the introduction of aniline dyes cochineal has so depre- 
ciated in value that its production on a large scale is no longer 
profitable, and the industry has lost its commercial importance. 
(See A. S. Brown, Social and Economical Condition of the Canary 
Islands, 5,24 [Parliament of Great Britain, Sessional Papers, \xxx. 
1892, Miscellaneous Series, No. 246].) 
1 Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 3 (1768). — Haworth, Syn. Pl. Suce. 
188. — De Candolle, Prodr. iii. 472.— Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 161. — 
Spach, Hist. Vég. xiii. 407, t. 46. —Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 
ed. 3, 66.—Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 302.— Willkomm & 
Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hispan. iii. 129. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. 
i, 554, — Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. iii. 420, — Duss, Ann. 
Inst. Col. Marseille, iii. 318 (Fl. Antilles Frangaises). — Schumann, 
Monog. Cact. 723. — Maiden, Agric. Gazette New South Wales, ix. 
994, t. 
Cactus Tuna, Linneus, Spec. i. 468 (1753). 
Cactus Opuntia Tuna, Tussac, Fl. Med. Antilles, ii. 213, t. 31 
(1818). 
Cactus Bonplandii, Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. 
et Spec. vi. 69 (1823). — Kunth, Syn. Pl. Ziquin. iii. 372. 
Opuntia horrida, De Candolle, 1. c. iii. 472 (1823). — Pfeiffer, 
1. c. 162. 
Opuntia Ficus-Indica, Webb & Berthelot, Phytogr. Canar. iii. 
pt. ii, sect. i 208 (not Miller) (1836-40). 
Opuntia Tuna, a native probably of some of the warmer parts of 
Central or South America, has become widely naturalized in most 
warm countries, One of the handsomest of the Opuntias, it is 
almost arborescent in habit, with a short stem, broad flat branches, 
stout yellow spines, and insipid fruit. It is this species which is 
perhaps most generally employed in hedges ; and it is frequently 
cultivated in southern Florida, the West Indies, northern Mexico, 
Lower California, southern California, and many of the countries 
of Central and South America, in the Mediterranean basin, India, 
Although 
the fruit is insipid, in the West Indies its juice is sometimes em- 
Australia, southern Africa, and the Canary Islands. 
ployed to give a scarlet color to liquors and to fruit used in confec- 
tionery. (See Fawcett, Economic Plants, Jamaica, 59.) Tuna, the 
specific name of this plant, is the common Spanish-American name 
of the fruits of all the flat-branched Opuntias. 
* Miller, J. c. No. 2. — Haworth, J. c. 191.— De Candolle, 1. c. 
iii. 473. — Pfeiffer, J. c. 152. — Salm-Dyck, J. c. 66, 235. — Chap- 
man, Fl, 144, — Grisebach, J. c. 302. — Lowe, Man. Fl. Mad. 317. — 
Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 246. — Willkomm & Lange, J. ¢. 
129. — Hemsley, J. c. i. 551. — Coulter, 2. c. 419. — Schumann, J. ¢. 
719. — Maiden, J. c. ix. 990. 
Cactus Ficus-Indica, Linnzeus, Spec. 468 (1753). 
Cactus Opuntia subinermis, Tussac, 1. c. ii. 220, t. 34 (1818). 
Opuntia Tuna, Webb & Berthelot, 1. c. 209 (not Miller) 
(1836-40). 
Cactus Opuntia, Gussone, Fi. Sicul. Prodr. 559 (not Linnzus) 
(1827). 
' Opuntia vulgaris, Tenore, Syll. Fl. Neap. 239 (not Miller) 
(1831). 
® The pulp of the fruit of the flat-leaved Opuntias is sweet and 
acidulous, and contains assimilable matter in the form of mucilage, 
albumen, and large quantities of sugar, and is free from all astrin- 
gent and toxic properties. (See De Graffe, Am. Jour. Pharm. lxviii. 
169, t. ; also Light, Am. Jour. Pharm. lvi. 3 [The Fruit of Opuntia 
vulgaris]. — Maisch, Am. Jour. Pharm. lxiii. 2 [Fruit of Opuntia].) 
That of Opuntia Ficus-Indica, the so-called Indian Fig, which is 
extensively cultivated for its fruit in Mexico and other warm 
countries, is perhaps more esteemed than that of other species. It 
is often three or four inches long and two inches wide, and is yel- 
low or orange-colored, more or less tinged with pink or red, and 
covered with small tufts of bristles, which are easily rubbed off. 
In northern Mexico it forms an important part of the food of the 
by street-vend 
the summer months. (See Palmer, West American Scientist, vi. 67.) 
vevin 
poor, being sold in immense qi 
during all 
It is also used as food in many parts of South America (see 
Hieronymus, Pl. Diaph. Fl. Arget. 128), and largely in Italy and 
the other countries bordering tle Medit (See Varvaro, 
Il Fico d’India in Sicilia.) 
The fruit of many other Opuntias is gathered and eaten by the 
North American Indians, especially by the tribes which inhabit the 
desert regions of the southwest. (See Newberry, Popular Science 
Monthly, xxxii. 37 [Food and Fibre Plants ofthe North American 
Indians].) By the Pawnees and Papigos it is gathered before it is 
fully ripe, allowed to dry, and used in cooking meat. The fresh 
unripe fruit is often boiled in water and then allowed to ferment, 
when it becomes stimulating as well as nutritious, 
In Mexico, calonche, an intoxicating drink similar in taste to 
hard cider, is made from the fruit of several species of Opuntia by 
pressing out the juice, passing it through straw sieves, and heating 
it by fire or the sun, when it soon begins to ferment. (See Havard, 
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxiii. 33 [Drink Plants of the North Ameri- 
can Indians].) 
* Coulter, /. c. 432 (1896). — Britton & Brown, Ill. Fi. ii. 463, f. 
2527, : 
Cactus Opuntia, Linneus, 1. ¢. 468 (in part) (1753). — Wal- 
ter, Fl. Car. 146.— Michaux, Fl. i. 282, — Persoon, Syn. ii. 
22. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 327. — Nuttall, Gen. i. 296. — El- 
liott, Sk. i. 587. — Sims, Bot. Mag. |. t. 2398. 
Opuntia vulgaris, Miller, J. c. No. 1 (1768); Icon. t. 191. — 
Haworth, J. c. 190. — De Candolle, 1. c. iii. 474. — Pfeiffer, J. c. 
149. — Salm-Dyck, 1. c. 69.— Engelmann, Proc. Am. Acad. iii. 
297. — Engelmann & J. M. Bigelow, Pacijic R. R. Rep. iv. pt. v. 
42, t. 10, f. 1, 2, t. 23, £. 13.— Chapman, J. c. 144. — Watson & 
Coulter, Gray’s Man. ed..6, 197. — Schumann, /. c. 714. — Maiden, 
1. ¢. ix. 992. 
Cactus Opuntia vulgaris, De Candolle, Pl. Grasses, 188, t. 
(1779). 
Opuntia maritima, Rafinesque, Med. Fl. ii. 247 (1830). 
Opuntia Italica, Tenore, 1. c. 241 (1831). 
Opuntia intermedia, Salm-Dyck, Cat. Hort. Dyck, 364 (1834) ; 
Cact. Hort. Dyck. ed. 3, 69, 243. — Pfeiffer, J. c. 150. 
Cactus nana, Visiani, Fl. Dalm. iii. 143 (1852). 
Opuntia vulgaris, 8 nana, Schumann, I. c. 715 (1898). 
Opuntia Opuntia, which grows on sandy and occasionally on rocky 
soil, usually only in the immediate neighborhood of the coast, from 
the island of Nantucket off the southern shore of Massachusetts 
to South Carolina, is a dwarf plant, with short procumbent flat- 
tened branches armed oceasionally with a few small spines, and 
