CACTACEA. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
13 
Massachusetts to South Carolina, and Opuntia Dillenii' have been believed to possess valuable medical 
properties. The large-growing Opuntias with flat leaves are employed in many countries to form 
hedges for the protection of gardens and fields against browsing animals; and the branches of Opuntia, 
which are saturated with watery juices, are sometimes stripped of their spines and bristles and fed to 
cattle.? 
¥ 
Opuntia, which forms the principal food of a number of scale-insects, is not known to suffer from 
them or from serious fungal diseases. 
Opuntia, used by Theophrastus as the name for some plant which grew in the neighborhood of the 
city of Opus in Beotia, was bestowed by Tournefort on the Prickly Pears of the New World.’ 
small yellow flowers. It is chiefly interesting as the most northern 
representative of the genusin eastern America. Rafinesque (Med. 
Fi, ii. 247) described the use of the split branches in the treatment 
of acute rheumatism and as a remedy for chronic ulcers, gout, and 
wounds, and stated that the juices and gummy exudations were 
used in the treatment of gravel. A tincture prepared from the 
fresh flowers and green ovaries is -ometimes used in homeopathic 
practice. (See Millspaugh, Am. Med. Pl. in Homeopathic Reme- 
dies, i. 61, t. 61.) 
In the southern states the quality of tallow candles has been 
sometimes improved by boiling the split branches of Opuntia Opun- 
tia with the tallow, which is hardened by their juices. (See Porcher, 
Resources of Southern Fields and Forests, 66.) 
Opuntia Opuntia is said to have been introduced into English 
gardens before the beginning of the sixteenth century (see Aiton, 
Hort. Kew. ii. 153), but it is not improbable that the early refer- 
ences to this plant apply to some West Indian or Mexican species 
and not to that of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, 
which from its small size and comparative rarity might easily have 
Opuntia 
Opuntia, or a dwarf species closely allied to it, is now naturalized 
in many of the tries of the Medit basin. (See Bro- 
tero, Fl. Lusitan. ii. 245. — Visiani, Fl. Dalm. iii, 143. — Will- 
komm & Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hispan. iii. 128. — Caruel, Parlatore 
Fi. Ital. x. 143.) 
In the region adjacent to the Rio Grande the flat branches of 
Opuntias are frequently used to poultice ulcers and sores of all 
kinds. The branch is first heated to remove the bristles and spines 
and to warm and soften the pulp; it is then opened through the 
middle or one of the surfaces is shaved off, and the exposed portion 
is applied to the part requiring treatment. Opuntia branches heated 
and mashed into pulp are employed in the same region to clarify 
water, and sometimes as food (see Havard, Proc. U. S. Nat. Herb. 
viii. 521); and on the Isthmus of Panama, where a species of Opun- 
tia is often planted in hedges, the split branches are also believed 
to possess medical virtues. (See Seemann, Bot. Voy. Herald, 131.) 
1 Opuntia Dillenii, Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 79 (1819). — De 
Candolle, Prodr, iii. 472. — Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 162. — Wight & 
escaped the notice of the first explorers of our coast. 
Arnott, Prodr. Fl. Ind. 363. — Wight, IU. ii. t. 114. — Lowe, Man. 
Fil. Mad. 318. — Clarke, Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 657. — Maiden, 
Agric. Gazette New South Wales, ix. 1002. 
Cactus Dillenii, Kerr, Bot. Reg. iii. t. 255 (1817). 
Cactus Indicus, Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ed. 2, ii. 475 (1832). 
Opuntia Tuna, Schumann, Monog. Cact. 724 (in part) (not 
Miller) (1898). 
Opuntia Dillenti, which is believed to be indigenous in tropical 
America, has become widely naturalized in India, extending to 
Jhelan in the northwest and ascending the Himalayas to elevations 
of five thousand feet above the sea-level. It has been largely used 
as a hedge plant. The fruit is esteemed as a refrigerant; the 
erushed branches are used as poultices to reduce heat and inflamma- 
tion; a syrup prepared from the fruit is employed in the treatment 
of whooping-cough to increase the secretion of bile and to control 
spasmodic coughing and expectoration. 
cessfully employed as a p 
The juice has been suc- 
1 
2g and asa d. tin the treat- 
ment of gonorrhea, and the pulp of the crushed. branches to relieve 
ophthalmia. (See Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 245.— Watt, Dic- 
tionary of the Economic Products of India, v. 490.) 
2 See Havard, J. c. — MacOwan, Kew Bull. Miscellaneous Infor- 
mation, July, 1888, 167. — Bourde, Revue Tunisienne, 1894 (Projet 
@Enquéte sur le Cactus considéré comme Plante Fourragere). — 
Maiden, J. c. vii. 651.— Boyce, Agric. Gazette New South Wales, 
viii. 260, 504. — Gennadius, Agric. Gazette New South Wales, ix. 38 
(The Prickly Pear in Cyprus). 
5 Little can be said with regard to the fungi which attack 
the larger species of Opuntia in this country. Spheria Cacti, 
Schweinitz, which forms black spots arranged in groups on the 
leaves, is probably common on several species, but its botanical 
characters are not well understood. Teichospora Opuntic, Ellis & 
Everhart, a small Pyrenomycete, attacks Opuntia arborescens, and 
Gleosporium Opuntic, Ellis & Everhart, has been found on Opuntia 
Brasiliensis, Haworth, in the United States. A peculiar morbid 
growth on Opuntia and other Cactacee has been described by 
Sorauer (Monat. Kakt. vii.1). It is due, however, not to the action 
of fungi but to the successive formation of corky tissue. 
* Inst. i. 239, t. 122. 
