THE THORNLESS EDIBLE CACTUS 



touch of a great poet who finds the prosy 

 [story of a Hamlet or a Lear and leaves it a 

 [masterpiece. 



Out of some twenty genera of cacti, recog- 



lized by naturalists, only five occur in the 

 [United States, but these are among the most 

 I varied of all in their species, so that the one 

 [thousand known varieties of cactus are nearly 

 I all restricted to America. It is upon one of 

 [these five, common to the United States, the 

 Opuntia, that Mr. Burbank has worked as a 

 [basis. It is of the variety having flat, thick 

 [leaves, though sometimes inclined to become 

 cylindrical. It is a native of Mexico and South 

 America. In their natural state their flowers 

 are very striking, some of them red, others 

 purple, others yellow. One of the species of 

 the Opuntia is cultivated in Mexico as a host 

 for the cochineal insect. The insect thrives 

 upon its leaves, is killed at the proper time 

 and dried, and from it is produced the briUiant 

 carmine color so useful in commerce. The 

 juice of the fruit is sometimes used as a 

 water-color for painting and for coloring con- 

 fectionery. Along the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean are several species of the Opuntia, the 



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