440 [ THE PRICKLY PEAR. 



flowers is produced in April or May, so that the fruit is 

 practically of the same age, but by removing all the 

 fruits as soon as the flowers have faded, and watering the 

 tree once or twice in quick succession, a smaller crop of 

 flowers is produced in June or early in July, which ma- 

 tures in autumn. These autumn prickly pears are usually 

 larger in size, and have an elongated or pear-shaped 

 form, and as they contain comparatively few seeds, they 

 are in great demand and fetch a good price. 



PROPAGATION. It is probable that the numerous forms 

 of the prickly pear, bearing round or elongated fruits 

 have originated as chance seedlings, and such seedlings 

 are frequent in neglected corners of gardens or fields, 

 but the prickly pear is never propagated intentionally by 

 seed, and is not advisable to do so except for the purpose 

 of raising new varieties. The seed saved from perfectly 

 ripe fruits should be stratified with sand and leaf-mould 

 in a box or pot and kept fairly moist to soften its hard 

 covering. It is sown in the following April or May, in 

 soil which has been well manured, or better in a mixture 

 of sand, leaf-mould and rotten manure. The seed ger- 

 minates partly during the summer, and the remainder in 

 the following year. The seedling has small fleshy lanceo- 

 late cotyledons, and slowly developes a slender fleshy 

 stem, which gradually increases in thickness and may 

 branch in the following year. The seedlings may be 

 potted off singly when they are about 5 c.m. high, and 

 transferred to the ground when they are . two or three 

 years old, and have reached the height of about 50 cm. 

 These seedlings will fruit when they are six to eight 

 years old, but instead of waiting so long to ascertain 

 the quality of the fruit, a branch or joint may be grafted 

 on an older tree, arid it will probably fruit in the following 

 year. 



The prickly pear is always propagated by cuttings 

 taken from the extremities of the branches. The cutting 



