214 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



elegant columns ; and some of them, called stringy- 

 bark gum-trees, are said to rise nearly as high 

 as the Monument in London without branching." 



" How I should like to see them !" said Henry ; 

 "but there would be no hope of climbing such 

 trees as those." 



" I do not expect," said his father, " that any 

 of you will feel much interest in the tribes imme- 

 diately following these, for they contain plants 

 which you call ugly, notwithstanding their hand- 

 some flowers." 



" Papa must mean the CACTUSES," said Mary, 

 "for we never liked them very much, they are 

 such odd, clumsy-looking plants. Where do they 

 come from ?" 



"From America, where some are valued for a 

 refreshing and agreeable fruit, which has a similar 

 taste to our currants, and very much the same 

 properties. And although you have never seen any 

 other description of cactus than strange succulent 

 plants without leaves, yet there are some kinds 

 which bear leaves, and which when old become 

 woody in their stems. Humboldt even speaks of a 

 forest of such plants, grown to the stature of trees, 

 and yielding wood fit for domestic uses." 



