288 DICTIONAEY OF POPULAR NAMES NOPAL 



tlie negroes are very fond. In Soudan the seeds are roasted as 

 we roast coffee, then bruised and placed in water, which subse- 

 quently ferments, and is allowed to remain till it becomes putrid, 

 the seeds are then well washed and pounded, and the powder 

 made into little cakes, which are used as a sauce for all kinds of 

 food, but to Europeans the smell is very disagreeable. The 

 farinaceous matter surrounding the seeds is made into a pleasant 

 drink, and they also make it into a kind of sweetmeat. It bears 

 the English name of the African Locust Tree, and in botany 

 is named after the African traveller Mungo Park, who first 

 brought it into notice. 



Nopal, the name in Mexico for the plant on which the 

 cochineal insect breeds {Opuntia cocliinellifera), a species of the 

 Cactus family. It is extensively cultivated in Mexico, especially 

 at Oaxaca. The plantations are called Xopaleries ; some con- 

 tain at least 50,000 plants, arranged in rows. It grows about 8 

 to 10 feet high, and has a tree-like appearance. Its stem and 

 older branches are nearly cylindrical, and different from most 

 species of Ojmntia, in being spineless and of an ash-grey 

 colour. The young branches, usually called joints, are flat and 

 of an oblong or obovate form, varying from 5 to 6 inches to a 

 foot in length; of a deep -green colour. The cochineal insect 

 belongs to the order Hemipterte, the males haA'ing wings and 

 the females none. It is nearly allied to the mealy bug, 

 common in hothouses, or to the blight on apple trees, the 

 female being enveloped in white flocky matter. In time the 

 whole of the upper part of the plant becomes enveloped in this 

 flock, under which the females are crowded. When full grown 

 they are of a red colour, and are then brushed off and killed by 

 the heat of the sun or hot water. Thev are then the Cochi- 

 neal of commerce. According to the celebrated traveller 

 Humboldt, the quantity in his time exported from Oaxaca alone 

 was valued at £500,000. It is now cultivated in Brazil and 

 other parts of America, and has been introduced into Madeira, 

 Teneriffe, and the Canaries, from whence a considerable quantity 

 comes to this country ; but Mexico still produces the greatest 



