CACTUS TRIBE ; COCHINEAL. GOOSEBERRY TRIBE. 445 



Besides possessing beauty for the eye, these flowers are delight - 

 fully fragrant, and fill the air with odours to a considerable dis- 

 tance around. 



612. When the flower has withered, the ovary enlarges and 

 becomes pulpy, and is in time converted into a fruit which has 

 much resemblance to that of a gooseberry, but is usually inferior 

 in flavour. The juiciness of the fruit of many species, however, 

 renders them acceptable in warm climates ; on Etna, for ex- 

 ample, the large cooling fruits of the Indian Fig are sold in con- 

 siderable quantity, and some of the varieties are of great excel- 

 lence.* Independently of this use, the Cactus tribe cannot be 

 said to be of any direct advantage to Man ; they indirectly serve 

 him, however, in a very important manner. Several species of 

 the order are infested with insects of the genus Coccus, some of 

 which, especially the Coccus Cacti, become, from the colouring 

 matter they collect from the fruit and flowers of the plant, of 

 great commercial importance, being, in fact, the Cochineal of the 

 painter and dyer. One particular species of Cactus contains a 

 red juice more delicate than the others ; and it is when feeding 

 on this, that the bodies of the Insects acquire the most brilliant 

 tinge. Cochineal consists of nothing else than the dried bodies 

 of the Insects, which are impregnated throughout with this 

 colour. 



613. The next order to be noticed is that of the GROSSU- 

 LARL<E or Gooseberry tribe, which is nearly allied, in the struc- 

 ture of its flowers and fruit, to the Cacteae, and may be re- 

 garded as representing that order in cold climates. Although 

 the stems of this tribe are not succulent, nor their leaves 

 entirely deficient, yet there is a conversion of many leaves into 

 spines, by the absence of their fleshy part. If the flower of the 

 common Gooseberry or Currant be examined, the following will 

 be found to be its structure. The calyx is a little globular cup, 

 green without and purple within ; its border is marked by five 



* It will serve to show the remarkable combination which exists between differ- 

 ent organs in this order, to state that the Author has witnessed an instance in 

 which the fruit of a Cactus sent forth a regular branch, which exactly resembled 

 those proceeding from the stem. 



