66 FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



be the inevitable result. Such indeed is the lot of all the gay com- 

 panions of the Cactus, to whom nature has given no means of en- 

 during the hardships to which their lot exposes them ; their leaves 

 rapidly consume the stores deposited in the stems, their stems turn 

 in vain to the roots for a renewed supply, for after but a little while 

 the arid earth has nothing to part with, and then the leaves wither 

 and fall off, the stems shrink up and crack with the dry heat, and 

 the roots themselves, in many cases, follow the same fate. With 

 Cactuses this is different ; they have so rough and thick a hide that 

 what liquid substances they contain can only pass through it in 

 minute quantities ; the breathing pores of their surface are com- 

 paratively few, and so small as to act with extreme slowness when 

 the air is dry ; so that in proportion to the aridity of the air, and 

 the heat to which such plants are exposed, is their reluctance to part 

 with the food they contain. They digest and re-digest it, with ex- 

 treme slowness, and may be truly said to live upon themselves during 

 all those months they cannot feed upon the soil or the atmosphere, 

 The species represented in our plate, belongs to the showy and 

 more thin-skinned of the genus, and consequently these remarks, 

 though they hold good with it, do not apply so particularly as to many 

 of the others ; it does not need a minute description, its truncated 

 appearance being about the only distinguishing trait. The hand- 

 somest species known is the Speciosissimus, an importation of a 

 recent date, from Brazil, probably the most magnificent species 

 known ; the flowers are extremely large, of a bright scarlet color, 

 and remain in bloom some days. We have seen in South America 

 the Cactus Cochinillifer, upon which the insect that gives name 

 to the plant feeds ; whole plantations are cultivated purposely to 

 obtain these insects, which always command a ready and profitable 

 sale, as it forms the richest and most durable dye of its color, 

 known. It is the emblem of GRANDEUR. 



