THE THORNLESS EDIBLE CACTUS 



touch of a great poet who finds the prosy 

 story of a Hamlet or a Lear and leaves it a 

 masterpiece. 



Out of some twenty genera of cacti, recog- 

 nized by naturalists, only five occur in the 

 United States, but these are among the most 

 varied of all in their species, so that the one 

 thousand known varieties of cactus are nearly 

 all restricted to America. It is upon one of 

 these five, common to the United States, the 

 Opuntia, that Mr. Burbank has worked as a 

 basis. It is of the variety having flat, thick 

 leaves, though sometimes inclined to become 

 cylindrical. It is a native of Mexico and South 

 America. In their natural state their flowers 

 are very striking, some of them red, others 

 purple, others yellow. One of the species of 

 the Opuntia is cultivated in Mexico as a host 

 for the cochineal insect. The insect thrives 

 upon its leaves, is killed at the proper time 

 and dried, and from it is produced the brilliant 

 carmine color so useful in commerce. The 

 juice of the fruit is sometimes used as a 

 water-color for painting and for coloring con- 

 fectionery. Along the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean are several species of the Opuntia, the 



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