136 CACTACE^E. (CACTUS FAMILY.) 



Order 45. CACTACEJ). (Cactus Family.) 



Fleshy and thickened mostly leafless plants, of pecidiar aspect, globular, 

 or columnar and many-angled, or flattened and jointed, usually with prickles. 

 Flowers solitary, sessile ; the sepals and petals numerous, imbricated in sev- 

 eral rows, adherent to the 1-celled ovary. — Stamens numerous, with long 

 and slender filaments, inserted on the inside of the tube or cup formed by 

 the union of the sepals and petals. Style 1 : stigmas numerous. Fruit a 

 1 -celled berry, with numerous campylotropous seeds on several parietal 

 placentae. Albumen little or none. — Represented east of the Mississippi 

 only by 



I. OPUNTIA, Tourn. Prickly Pear. Indian Pig. 



Sepals and petals not united' into a prolonged tube, spreading, regular, the inner 

 roundish. Berry often prickly. Seeds with albumen. Cotyledons large, folia- 

 ceous in germination. — Stem composed of joints, bearing very small awl-shaped 

 and usually deciduous leaves arranged in a spiral order, with clusters of barbed 

 bristles and often spines also in their axils. Plowcrs yellow, opening in sun- 

 shine for more than one day. (A name of Theophrastus, originally belonging 

 to some different plant.) 



1. O. vuSgstl'is, Mill. (Cactus Opuntia, L.) Low, prostrate-spreading, 

 pale, with flat and broadly obovate joints ; the minute leaves ovate-subulate and 

 oppressed ; the axils bristly, rarely with a few small spines ; flowers sulphur- 

 yellow ; berry nearly smooth, eatable. — Sandy fields and dry rocks, from Nan- 

 tucket, Mass. southward, usually near the coast. June. 



Var. ? Kaliliesquii. Larger, dark green, mostly spiny, with spreading 

 and awl-shaped leaves. O. Rafinesquii, Engelm. — Wisconsin to Kentucky, 

 and westward. See Addend. 



Order 46. GROSSULACE^E. (Currant Family.) 



Low shrubs, sometimes priekly, with alternate and palmately-lobed leaves, 

 a b-lobcd calyx cohering with the 1-celled ovary, and bearing 5 stamens alter- 

 nating with as many small petals. Fruit a 1-celled berry, with 2 parietal 

 placenta, crowned with the shrivelled remains of the calyx. Seeds numer- 

 ous, anatropous, with a gelatinous outer coat, and a minute embryo at the 

 base of hard albumen. Styles 2, distinct or united. — Leaves mostly 

 plaited in the bud, often clustered in the axils, the small flowers from tho 

 same clusters, or from separate lateral buds. — Comprises only the. genus 



1. KIBES, L: Currant. Gooseberry. 

 Character same as of the order. (Name of Arabic origin.) 

 4 1. GPvOSSULARIA, Tourn. (Gooseberry.) —Stems mostly bearing thorns 

 at the base of the leafstalks or clusters of leaves, and often with scattered bristly 

 prickles : berries prickly or smooth. 



