UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 9 



This is the C. opuntia, or prickly pear, which 

 bears on the edge of its leaf an agreeably fla- 

 voured fruit. The melo-cactus has been named 

 by St. Pierre the Vegetable Spring of the Desert : 

 its shape is spherical, and though half concealed 

 in the sand of the parched plains in South Ame- 

 rica, the animals, who are always tormented by 

 thirst, discover it at a great distance, and notwith- 

 standing its formidable prickles, greedily suck the 

 refreshing juice with which it abounds." 



From the rich vegetation of America, we went 

 to New Holland, and she told me that though 

 but little of the interior has been yet explored, 

 numbers of vegetables totally different from those 

 of America, though in the same degrees of lati- 

 tude, have been found there. " They seem to 

 have quite a separate character ; and those that 

 are suited to the nourishment of man, are as 

 rare in that country as they are common in 

 America. The forests of New Holland, where 

 the axe has never been heard, and where vege- 

 tation extends itself without restraint, are de- 

 scribed as having a very singular appearance ; 

 the trees crumbling with age, and covered with 

 mosses and lichens. Among their most beautiful 

 productions are the mimosce, the superb metro- 

 sideros, and the whole tribe of eucalyptus; many 

 of which are from one hundred and sixty feet 

 to one hundred and eighty feet in height." 



I asked Miss Perceval whether South America 



