68 A DESERT FRUIT. 



the thicker it springs ; each murdered bit becomes the 

 parent in due time of a numerous offspring. Man, how- 

 ever, with his usual ingenuity, has managed to best the 

 plant, on this its own ground, and turn it into a useful 

 fodder for his beasts of burden. The prickly pear is planted 

 abundantly on bare rocks in Algeria, where nothing else 

 would grow, and is cut down when adult, divested of its 

 thorns by a rough process of hacking, and used as food 

 for camels and cattle. It thus provides fresh moist 

 fodder in the African summer when the grass is 

 dried up and all other pasture crops have failed 

 entirely. 



The flowers of the prickly pear, as of many other 

 cactuses, grow apparently on the edge of the leaves, 

 which alone might give the observant mind a hint as to 

 the true nature of those thick and flattened expansions. 

 For whenever what look like leaves bear flowers or fruit 

 on their edge or midrib, as in the familiar instance of 

 butcher's broom, you may be sure at a glance they are 

 really branches in disguise masquerading as foliage. 

 The blossoms in the prickly pear are large, handsome, 

 and yellow ; at least, they would be handsome if one 

 could ever see them, but they are generally covered so 

 thick in dust that it is difficult properly to appreciate their 

 beauty. They have a great many petals in numerous 

 rows, and a great many stamens in a rosette in the 

 centre ; and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, as 

 lawyers put it, they are fertilized for the most part by 

 tropical butterflies ; but on this point, having observed 

 them but little in their native habitats, I speak under 

 correction. 



