72 TILLEES OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



The plant has a great many uses, especially in 

 hot dry regions. First we have the fruit. It is 

 sweet but very full of seeds, and therefore people 

 like the Americans, accustomed to all sorts of 

 splendid fruits, are not so fond of it as simpler 

 people like the Arabs, who, in Tunis and Morocco, 

 eat enormous quantities of it. But it is a very 

 variable plant ; some kinds have very many fewer 

 seeds than others, and there seems no doubt that 

 with careful cultivation kinds entirely without 

 seeds could be grown. Its first use, then, is as a 

 fruit. 



Another very important use is that it makes a 

 splendid hedge plant. Some kinds are so prickly 

 that no animal will try to push its way through, 

 and, therefore, it can be used to enclose crops that 

 must be protected from grazing animals. It is 

 much cheaper to grow prickly pear in this way 

 than to make a fence of wire and wood ; and the 

 ordinary hedgerow plants of cool damp countries 

 will not grow in the heat and drought of dry 

 countries. This is, therefore, a second great use 

 which it has. 



But it has still other uses. In the Mediterranean 

 region the camel, which has always lived in the 

 deserts and therefore is not particular about its 

 food, can often be seen feeding upon it. The very 

 spiny kinds, such as those which are used for 



