THE CACTUSES. 1.33 



East Indian and South Sea Isles, where they form a promin^t 

 feature in the landscape, closely resembles that of the bromelias, 

 while the stem (round which the serrated leaves ascend in 

 spiral convolutions, till they terminate in a pendulous crown); 

 the aerial roots, and the fruit, remind one of the palms, the 

 mangroves, and the coniferse. 



The Pandanus odoratissimus, or sweet-smelling screw-pine, 

 whose fruits, when perfectly mature, resemble large rich-coloured 

 pine -apples, plays an important part in the household economy 

 of the coral-islanders of the South Sea. The inhabitants of the 

 Mulgrave Archipelago, where the cocoa-nut is rare, live almost 

 exclusively on the juicy pulp and the pleasant kernels of the 

 fruit. The dried leaves serve to thatch their cottages, or are 

 made use of as a material for mats and raiment. The wood is 

 hard and durable. They string together the beautiful red and 

 yellow-coloured nuts for ornaments, and wear the flowers as 

 garlands. When the tree is in full blossom, the air around ia 

 impregnated with a delicious odour. 



The grotesque forms of the Cactuses possess the stiff rigidity 

 of the aloes. Their fleshy stems, covered with a gray-green 

 coriaceous rind, generally exhibit bunches of hair and thorns 

 instead of leaves. The angular columns of the Cerei, or torch^ 

 cactuses, rise to the height of sixty feet, — generally branchless, 

 sometimes strangely ramified, as candelabras, while others 

 creep like ropes upon the ground, or hang, snake-like, from the 

 trees, on which they are parasitically rooted. The opuntias are 

 unsymmetrically constructed of thick flat joints springing one 

 from the other, while the melon-shaped Echinocacti and Mam- 

 millarise, longitudinally ribbed or covered with warts, remain 

 attached to the soil. The dimensions of these nionstrous plants 

 are exceedingly variable. One of the Mexican echinocacti 

 {E. Visnaga) measures four feet in height, three in diameter, 

 and weighs about two hundred pounds ; while the dwarf cactiis 

 (E, nana) is so small that, loosely rooted in the sand, it 

 frequently remains sticking between the toes of the dogs that 

 pass over it. The splendidly coloured flowers of the cactuses 

 form a strange contrast to the deformity of their stems, and the 

 spectator stands astonished at the glowing life that springs 

 forth from so unpromising a stock. These strange compounds 

 of ugliness and beauty are in many respects useful to man. 



