C A C 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C A C 



917 



3. Cachrys Tenuifolia ; Fine-leaved Cachrys. Leaves super- 

 decompound, smooth, with very numerous filiform leaf- 

 lets ; seeds oval. It flowers in May. Native of the country 

 about Montpellier. 



4. Cachrys Odontalgica. Leaves superdecompound, rough 

 with hairs; the end leaflets digitate-multifid,bluntish; seeds 

 obovate, truncate, even. The root is very long, and being 

 of a very sharp aromatic flavour, is used in the tooth-ache. 

 Found abundantly between the Volga and the Jaick. 



5. Cachrys Panacifolia. Leaves pinnate and ternate, with 

 oblong crenate leaflets ; seeds hirsute. Stem three feet high, 

 streaked, hoary, round, full. Native of New Castile and 

 Barbary. 



Cactus ; a genus of the class Icosandria, order Monogynia. 

 r GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one-leafed, im- 

 bricate, hollow-tubular, with scaly leaflets scattered over it, 

 superior, deciduous. Corolla: petals numerous, rather ob- 

 tuse, broad ; the outer ones shorter, the inner larger, con- 

 verging. Stamina : filamenta numerous, subulate, inserted 

 into the calix ; antherae oblong, erect. Pistil : germen in- 

 ferior ; style the length of the stamina, cylindric ; stigma 

 headed, multifid. Pericarp ; berry rather oblong, one-celled, 

 umbilicate, roughened as the calix is. Seeds : numerous, 

 roundish, small, nestling. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : 

 one-leafed, superior, imbricate. Corolla : manifold. Berry : 

 one-celled, many-seeded. This genus consists of suc- 

 culent plants, permanent in duration, singular and various in 

 structure ; generally without leaves, and having the stem or 

 branches jointed ; for the most part armed with spines in 

 bundles, with which, in many species, bristles are intermixed. 

 These bundles of spines are placed on the top of the tuber- 

 cles in the first species, or Smaller Melon Thistle, which is 

 tubercled all over, and produces its flowers between the 

 tubercles. In the second species, or Great Melon Thistle, the 

 spines are ranged in a single row on the ridge of the ribs ; 

 these are of an ovate or globular form. From the third to 

 the eleventh species, or the Torch Thistles, they are slender, 

 rise up high, are jointed and branched ; many of them are 

 almost cylindrical, with from five to ten shallow ribs ; some, 

 however, are square or three-cornered. They are called in 

 the West Indies, Torch-wood, because when they grow old 

 they will burn, and the Indians use them as flambeaux. 

 They are by no means perfectly known ; and therefore re- 

 main to be well described by travellers. The structure of the 

 Creeping Cereuses, No. 12, 13, &c. is the same with these, 

 except that the stems are weak, and cannot support them- 

 selves ; they therefore seek support from trees, and throw 

 out roots from the stem like Ivy. In the Indian Figs, No. 17, 

 &c. the branches are jointed, and flatted like the sole of a 

 shoe ; the bundles of spines, or bristles, are scattered over 

 the surface ; and the flowers are produced from the edge of 

 the extreme branches. In the Phyllanthus, No. 23, the 

 branches are thinner, and may fairly be denominated leaves ; 

 they are indented along the edge, and the flowers come out 

 singly from the indentures ; it seldom has any spines. Pe- 

 reskia has a round stalk with leafy branches ; the leaves al- 

 ternate, flat, and thick ; the prickles are large and stiff, and 

 come out in bundles on the stalk and branches, chiefly at 

 the axils ; the flowers are produced several together, from 

 the axils also. In this and the Indian-figs, the flowers are 

 pitcher-shaped ; in the other species they are subcylindrical, 

 and longer ; in Phyllanthus very long. The fruit in some 

 of the sorts is small, like currants, but in most it is larger, 

 and shaped like a fig, whence the name of Indian-fig. These 

 singular plants are all natives of the continent of South 

 America, and the West Indian islands. The species are, 



voi,. i. 19. 



* Echinomelocacti of a roundish form. 

 1. Cactus Mammillaris ; Smaller Melon Thistle. Round- 

 ish, covered with ovate bearded tubercles. This differs from 

 the second species, in being smaller and covered with tuber- 

 cles, between which the flowers and fruit come out, round 

 the middle of the plant ; the flowers appear in July and 

 August ; the fruit is of a fine scarlet colour, and continuing 

 fresh upon the plants through the winter, are very beautiful 

 at that season. The childing variety is but little larger than 

 the other, growing nearly in the same form, but produces a 

 great number of young plants from the sides, by which it is 

 increased : it produces tufts of a soft white down upon the 

 tubercles or knobs, and also between them, so that the 

 whole plant appears as if covered with fine cotton. This 

 species produces quantities of fruit annually ; and as the seeds 

 grow very readily, it is now very common in those gardens 

 where there are stoves to keep them, for if the fruit be per- 

 mitted to drop upon the earth of the pots, and that is not 

 disturbed, there will plenty of plants come up without any 

 further trouble ; and these seedling plants may be taken 

 up as soon as they are of a proper size to remove, and planted 

 six or seven of them into a small halfpenny-pot, where they 

 may stand one year, by which time they will each be large 

 enough for a separate pot, and afterwards they will make 

 great progress, especially if they are plunged into a hot-bed 

 of tanner's bark in summer, for although this sort is much 

 more hardy than the large kind, and may be preserved in a 

 moderate stove, yet the plants will not make near the pro- 

 gress of those which are kept in a greater degree of heat. 

 This sort will continue many years with proper care, and the 

 plant will grow to be a foot high or more ; but when they 

 are so tall, the lower part of them is not so sightly, their 

 green being decayed, and the spines changed to a dark dirty 

 colour, they appear as if dead, so that the upper part of these 

 old plants only seem to have life, whereas the plants of the 

 middling size appear healthy from top to bottom. In the 

 spring, when the fruit shrivels and becomes dry, the seeds 

 will be ripe, and may then be rubbed out, and sown upon 

 the surface of the earth in small pots, which should be 

 plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, to bring up the 

 plants. In the childing variety, the young offsets may be 

 taken off, and after laying them up to dry for two or three 

 days, may be planted, and will succeed very well. 



2. Cactus Melocactus ; Great Melon Thistle, or Turk's 

 Cap. Roundish, fourteen or fifteen angled ; angles spirally 

 twisted ; spines erect. This appears like a large fleshy green 

 melon, with deep ribs set all over with strong sharp thorns ; 

 when it is cut through the middle, the inside is found to be 

 a soft, green, fleshy substance, very full of moisture ; the 

 flowers and fruit are produced in circles round the upper 

 part of the cap. Some of these, brought to England, have 

 been more than a yard in circumference, anil two feet and a 

 half high, including the cap : but in the West Indies there 

 are plants nearly twice as large. There are several varieties 

 of this species j indeed Mr. Miller has made four species of 

 the great Melon Thistle, and thinks, if the islands in the 

 West Indies were examined, many more sorts would be found. 

 These strange plants commonly grow upon the steep sides 

 of rocks in the hottest parts of America, where they seem 

 to be thrust out of the apertures, having little or no earth 

 to support them, their roots shooting down into the fissures 

 of the rock to a considerable depth, so that it is troublesome 

 to get the plants up. As they delight in such rocky places, 

 they seldom live long when transplanted into a better soil. 

 In times of great drought, the cattle repair to the barren 

 rocks where these plants grow, rip them up with their horns 

 3K 



