THE PRICKLY PLUM. 19 



plain, with a vulture perched motionless on its 

 summit, had much the appearance of a highly- 

 wrought zoophoric. A second many-sided cactus 

 resembles that last described, in the form of its 

 stem or leaf, but has a procumbent and diffused 

 growth, and bears a profusion of flowers with 

 broad and elegant rays of white petals, succeeded 

 by fruit the size and shape of a large orange, 

 green when immature, and when ripe of a bright 

 crimson colour. Within the rind, (which is 

 dense and leathery,) is contained a red, juicy, 

 and farinaceous pulp, studded with small black 

 seeds. This berry is caUed by Europeans the 

 " prickly plum." It is produced in great abun- 

 dance, and its pulp (which has a cool, sweet, and 

 subacid taste, not unlike that of a raspberry 

 preserve) is an exceedingly wholesome and 

 delicious food. A third species, resembling 

 Cactus tuna,, is the most common in the jungle, 

 where its long and rigid thorns prove very 

 troublesome to the traveller, penetrating his 

 flesh, and resisting extraction by the barbed 

 structure of their points. The species with 

 broad and spinous leaves, (the " prickly pear" of 

 other tropical lands,) we noticed but rarely here 

 and never with either flower or fruit. 



Amongst the sea-weeds floating close in with 

 the land, we found several examples of the 



c 2 



