144 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



Cactuses, for they have the same angular fleshy stems, con- 

 taining the same sort of apparatus for laying in water ; but 

 Cactuses we remember are almost entirely confined to the 

 New World. These Euphorbias, some of them, grow to 

 the size of trees, with crooked, dropsical-looking trunks, 

 and no leaves, except a bunch at the very end of the 

 branches. The milky-looking juice, which is a peculiarity 

 of all the tribe, and generally acrid, is however in one spe- 

 cies (Euphorbia balsamifera) " so innocuous and sweet that 

 it is thickened to jelly and eaten by the inhabitants." There 

 is another species (Euphorbia Canariensis) in which " there 

 is nothing which can recall to us the ordinary form of a 

 bush or tree " it looks more like an enormous lustre than 

 anything else ; its branches " bend in a semicircle down to 

 the ground, and then rise again perpendicularly at various 

 distances;" scarlet flowers break forth at the ends of the 

 thick fleshy branches, " which at a distance are like burning 

 coals." 



Though very few tropical plants are found in the Canary 

 Islands, we again meet with the broad-leaved Bananas 

 there, and make acquaintance with the graceful-looking 

 Sugar-cane (Saccharum), with its drooping grass-like leaves. 

 There are a few other tropical plants besides, amongst 



