136 CACTACE.E. (CACTUS FAMILY.) 



ORDER 45. CACTACE^E. (CACTUS FAMILY.) 



Fleshy and thickened mostly leafless plants, of peculiar aspect, globular^ 

 or columnar and many-angled, or fattened and jointed, usually with prickles. 

 Flowers solitary, scxxilr ; the sepals and petals numerous, imbricated in sev- 

 eral rows, adherent to the l-celle<l ovary. Stamens numerous, with long 

 and slender filaments, inserted on the inside of the tube or cup formed l>y 

 the union of the sepals and petals. Style 1 : stigmas numerous. Fruit a 

 1 -celled berry, with numerous campylotropous seeds on several parietal 

 placentae. Albumen little or none. Represented east of the Mississippi 

 only by 



1. OP I! NT I A, Tourn. PRICKLY PEAR. INDIAN FIG. 



Sepals and petals not united into a prolonged tube, spreading, regular, the inner 

 roundish. Berry often prickly. Seeds with albumen. Cotyledons large, folia- 

 ceous in germination. Stem composed of joints, bearing very small awl-shaped 

 and usually deciduous leaves arranged in a spiral order, with clusters of barbed 

 bristles and often spines also in their axils. Flowers yellow, opening in sun- 

 shine for more than one day. (A name of Theophrastus, originally belonging 

 to some different plant.) 



1. O. vnlgaris, Mill. (Cactus Opuntia, L.) Low, prostrate-spreading, 

 pale, with flat and broadly obovate joints ; the minute leaves ovate-subulate and 

 appressed ; the axils bristly, rarely with a few small spines ; flowers sulphur- 

 yellow ; berry nearly smooth, eatable. Sandy fields and dry rocks, from Nan- 

 tucket, Mass, southward, usually near the coast. June. 



Var. ? Rafinesqilii. Larger, dark green, mostly spiny, with spreading 

 and awl-shaped leaves. O. Rafinesquii, Engdm. Illinois and southward, and 

 probably in Virginia. 



ORDER 4G. GROSSULACE^E. (CURRANT FAMILY.) 



Low shrubs, sometimes prickly, with alternate and palmately-lobed leaves, 

 a b-lobed calyx cohering with the \-celled ovary, and bearing 5 stamens alter- 

 nating uith as many small petals. Fruit a \-celled berry, with 2 parietal 

 placentce, crowned with the shrivelled remains of the calyx. Seeds numer- 

 ous, anatropous, with a gelatinous outer coat, and a minute embryo at the 

 base of hard albumen. Styles 2, distinct or united. Leaves mostly 

 plaited in the bud, often clustered in the axils, the small flowers from the 

 same clusters, or from separate lateral buds. Comprises only the genus 



1. 161151]$, L. CURRANT. GOOSEBERRY. 

 Character same as of the order. (Name of Arabic origin.) 



i 1. GROSSULARIA, Tourn. (GOOSEBERRY.) Stems mtstly bearing thorn* 



at the base of the leafstalks or dusters of haves, and often uith scattered bristly 

 prickle* : berries prickly or smooth. 



