- 

 THE. PRICKLY PEAR. 



- .;lv 



Opuntia Picus-indica Mill. CACTACEAE. 



Ma\tese=&ajtar ta Ghindia, bajtar tax-xeuc. Italian yf^ cTIndia 



The Prickly Pear in its wild or half wild forms is 

 native of America from Equador to Mexico, and is pro- 

 bably derived by cultivation from Opuntia Tuna Mill. 

 which is also native of that region, but is now extensively 

 cultivated and naturalised in all regions bordering the 

 Mediterranean. The prickly pear is a strange looking 

 small tree from 3 to 6 metres high, obstrusively familiar 

 everywhere in these Islands, with flat articulate, leafless 

 branches or "joints", which have on both sides and 

 along the margin at regular intervals, cushions of 

 small short bristles, commonly miscalled spines, and 

 sometimes one or two spines (i to 2 c.m. long) springing 

 from the centre. The cushions of bristles represent 

 the buds, and in the young branch a small cylindrical 

 fleshy leaflet is always present just below the cushion, but 

 soon dries and drops off, being superseded in its physio- 

 logical function by the green coloring matter or chloro- 

 phyll of the fleshy branches. The flowers bloom in 

 April and May, and in the sunshine the stamens are 

 irritable, closing quickly on the pistil when touched by 

 an insect or by any other foreign body. The fruit is a 

 berry, surrounded at regular intervals, as in the branches, 

 by small cushions of short stiff bristles which are easily 

 brushed off. These cushions are abortive buds, and may 

 be sometimes normal buds from which another fiuit or 

 branch may develop. The fruit may be yellow, white 

 or red, and is largely eaten chiefly by the poorer 

 classes, but usually contains too many hard seeds to be 

 appreciated. The pulp is sweet and refreshing, and but 



