328 PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLANTS. 



Mexico, upwards of 4 English feet high, is above 3 English feet 

 diameter, and weighs from 700 to 2000 Ibs. : while Cactus nanus, 

 which we found near Sondorillo, in the province of Jaen, is so small 

 that, being only slightly rooted in the sand, it gets between the toes 

 of dogs. The Melocactuses, which are full of juice in the dryest 

 seasons like the Ravanela of Madagascar (forest-leaf in the language 

 of the country, from rave, raven, a leaf, and ala, the Javanese Jialas, 

 a forest), are vegetable fountains; and the manner in which the 

 horses and mules stamp them open with their hoofs, at the risk of 

 injury from the spines, has been already mentioned (vol. i. p. 19). 

 Since the last quarter of a century Cactus opuntia has extended 

 itself in a remarkable manner into Northern Africa, Syria, Greece, 

 and the whole of the South of Europe; even penetrating, in Africa, 

 from the coasts far into the interior of the country, and associating 

 itself with the indigenous plants. 



When one has been accustomed to see Cactuses only in our hot- 

 houses, one is astonished at the degree of density and hardness which 

 the ligneous fibres attain in old cactus stems. The Indians know 

 that cactus wood is incorruptible, and excellent for oars and for the 

 thresholds of doors. There is hardly anything in vegetable physiog- 

 nomy which makes so singular and ineffaceable an impression on a 

 newly arrived person, as the sight of an arid plain thickly covered, 

 like those near Cumana, New Barcelona, and Coro, and in the pro- 

 vince of Jaen de Bracamoros, with columnar and candelabra-like 

 divided cactus stems. 



( 21 ) p. 24." Orckidese." 



The almost animal shape of blossoms of Orchidese is particularly 

 striking in the celebrated Torito of South America (our Anguloa 

 grandiflora); in the Mosquito (our Restrepia antennifera) ; in the 

 Flor del Espiritu Santo (also an Anguloa, according to Florse Peru- 

 vianas Prodrom. p. 118, tab. 26) ; in the ant-like flower of the 

 Chiloglottis cornuta (Hooker, Flora antarctica, p. 69) ; in the Mex- 

 ican Bletia speciosa ; and in the highly curious host of our European 

 species of Ophrys: 0. muscifera, 0. apifera, O. aranifera, O. arach- 

 nites, ,&c. A predilection for this superbly flowering group of 

 plants has so increased, that the number cultivated in Europe by 



