444 [ THE PRICKLY PKAR. 



3. THE WHITE PRICKLY PEAR. (Maltese bajtar 

 abjad, bajtar Francis). The fruit is barrel-shaped, oval 

 or elongated, plump, greenish white, sometimes shaded 

 yellow or streaked reddish. The pulp is white or greenish 

 white, often streaked yellow or reddish close to the peel, 

 generally not so sweet as the yellow forms, but sweeter 

 than the red variety. 



4. THE LARGE DEEP YELLOW PRICKLY PEAR. (M.= 



bajtar lanche). The fruit is oval or elongated, more or 

 less pear-shaped, and larger than other varieties. The 

 peel is thin and its colour is nankin yellow, shaded and 

 streaked purple red. Ths pulp is nankin yellow, gene- 

 rally with purplish red streaks close to the peel. It is 

 luscious and very sweet. This and the next two sorts 

 are forms of the yellow variety. 



5. THE SEEDLESS PRICKLY PEAR. (Maltese^tf//^ 

 fa bla zerrigk')}. The fruit is quite like that of the typical 

 elongated yellow variety, but contains few seeds. This 

 sort originated at Siggieui. 



6. THE SMALL SEEDLESS PRICKLY PEAR. Maltese = 

 bajtar irkiek, baitar ta zergha seuda). The fruit is oval in 

 shape, and small or very small. In colour and other 

 qualities it is like the yellow variety, but contains very 

 small black soft seeds, which are less objectionable than 

 the large hard seeds of other sorts. However, the fruit 

 although very sweet, is too small to be appreciated. This 

 variety originated in the eastern part of the Island, 

 probably of Zeitun. 



DISEASES. 



Didymosphaeria opulenta Sacc. attacks the fleshy 

 joints in winter and early spring, causing yellowish brown 

 blotches with a rounded outline and minute black dots. 

 It is probable that the starting points of the fungus are 

 the small excoriations of the epidermis caused by showers 

 of hail in autumn. However the infection is rarely so 



