Carica.] XL. PASSIFLOREiE. 245 



into India at an early date after the discovery of America, for in 1626 seeds 

 were brought to Naples from India (De Candolle Geogr. Bot. ii. 917). The 

 Indian name of the plant is derived from that under which it was known in 

 America (Papaw, papay), and the Burmese name of Thimbawthi (fruit brought 

 by sea-going vessels) is a further confirmation of its foreign origin. In flower 

 and fruit nearly throughout the year, bears fruit 18 months after sowing. The 

 unripe fruit is eaten as a vegetable and preserved, the ripe fruit is sweet and 

 very pleasant, the seeds are pungent. Meat becomes tender by washing it with 

 water impregnated with the milky juice, or by suspending the joint under the 

 tree. 



Tetrameles nudiflora, R. Brown ; Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 212 Syn. T. Graham- 

 iana, Wight Ic. 1956 is a large deciduous tree, of the Order Datiscece. Fl. 

 yellow, small, dioicous; male flowers in erect panicles, crowded at the ends of 

 branchlets; female flowers in pendulous racemes. Calyx 5-cleft ; petals none; 

 stamens 4; styles 4. Capsules small, many-seeded, dehiscent at the top. 

 Leaves cordate, long-petiolate, tomentose beneath. Fl. Feb.-March, while 

 leafless. Burma. Western coast from Bombay southwards. Wood soft. 



Order XLI. CACTEiE, 



Perennial plants, often arborescent, with succulent stems of anomalous 

 form, flat, lobed, columnar, ovoid or globular. Leaves minute, scale-like, 

 rarely perfect ; epidermis of the younger parts of stem and branches green 

 and furnished with pores. Flowers usually large and handsome, sessile, 

 solitary, bisexual and regular. Calyx -tube adnate to the ovary ; limb short 

 or tubular ; lobes numerous, on the margin only, or covering the entire 

 surface of the ovary. Petals numerous, inserted at the mouth of the 

 calyx, the outer conform to the calyx -lobes. Stamens indefinite, fila- 

 ments filiform, long ; anthers ovate, versatile. Ovary inferior, syncarpous, 

 1 -celled; ovules numerous, on parietal placentae; style terminal, simple; 

 stigma radiating. Fruit succulent, 1 -celled. Seeds numerous. Gen. 

 PL i. 845; Eoyle 111. 223; Wight 111. ii. 48. 



1. OPUNTIA. 



Branches flat, jointed, the joints ovate, obovate, or oblong, bearing 

 tufts of spines or bristles. Leaves small, very caducous, under each 

 younger tuft. Flowers arising from the tufts or margins of the 

 joints, yellow or reddish. Calyx-tube not prolonged beyond the ovary ; 

 lobes numerous, the outer scale-like or foliaceous, adnate to the ovary, the 

 inner short, flat. Petals numerous, connate at the base, spreading. 

 Stamens indefinite, in many series ; filaments shorter than petals, free or 

 connate. Style cylindric, thicker below, constricted at the base ; stigma 

 with 2-7 thick erect branches. Fruit pyriform, umbilicate at the top, 

 tubercled, and often having spines. Seeds with a hard osseous testa, 

 foliaceous cotyledons, and copious or scanty albumen. 



1. 0. Dillenii, Haworth; W. & A. Prodr. 363 ; Wight 111. t. 114. 

 Syn. Cactus indicus, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 475. Prickly Pear. Vern. Nag- 

 phana (the hood of a serpent), nagphansi, Hindi ; Chappal send, Dekkan. 



