CX. FICOIDEJE. 461 



Cactca are all American ; a Rhipsalis has, however, recently been discovered on the west coast of 

 Africa [and in Ceylon]. They are especially tropical, but many are found beyond the tropical zone, and 

 as far north as 49, and south to 30 ; they abound in Texas, Mexico and California. .It is in the Sonora, 

 in the environs of Gila, that we fincl the most gigantic Cacti (Cereus giyantewi), resembling candelabra of 

 50 to 60 feet high. 



Opmiliu mtlgaris is now naturalized throughout the Mediterranean region, where its fruit is eaten 

 under the name of Indian Fig ; its taste recalls that of a pumpkin, and its pulp contains a gelatinous 

 principle analogous to gum tragacanth. The berries of several Cactece are sub-acid, and hence refreshing, 

 antibilious and antiscorbutic. The milky juice of some species is administered in America for intestinal 

 worms. A decoction of the flowers of Melocactus communis is a reputed remedy for syphilis. The 

 fruit of Opuntia vulgaris is diuretic, and colours urine cf a deep red ; its joints are applied as a topic to 

 hasten the maturing of tumours. It is on this species and its congeners, known as Prickly Pear, and 

 cultivated in Mexico and the Canaries, that the Cochineal insect lives an hemipterous insect, much 

 employed in the arts in the composition of carmine, crimson lake, and a dye called Cochineal red. 



CX. FICOIDEJBJ 



[Annual or perennial HERBS, rarely SHRUBS, with often whorled and knotted 

 branches. LEAVES opposite, alternate, or in false whorls, entire or with cartilaginous 

 margins and teeth ; stipules or scarious. FLOWERS % , usually cymose, rarely 

 unisexual, regular. CALYX free or adnate to the ovary, 4-5-lobed or -divided, 

 persistent, imbricate in bud. PETALS or small and white, large in Mesembryan-. 

 themum. STAMENS perigynous, rarely hypogynous, equal in number to and opposite 

 the sepals, or more numerous and scattered, or combined in fascicles ; filaments free 

 or connate ; anthers oblong, 2-celled, dehisceiice longitudinal. DISK 0, or annular, 

 or produced into staminodes. OVARY usually free, 2-oo -celled, rarely 1 -celled ; 

 styles as many as the cells, free or connate, usually subulate and papillose on the 

 inner surface ; ovules solitary in the cells and basal, or numerous and inserted on 

 the inner angles of the cells, amphitropous. FRUIT a membranous or hard capsule, 

 or achene or drupe, or separating into utricles or cocci. SEEDS solitary or 

 numerous, reniform, ovoid, globose or obovoid ; testa membranous or crustaceous, 

 hilum lateral or rarely facial ; albumen scanty or copious, farinaceous, rarely fleshy. 

 EMBRYO curved round the albumen, terete ; cotyledons narrow, incumbent ; radicle 

 terete. 



TRITIE I. MESEMBKYANTHB^B. Calyx' adnate to the ovary. Leaves exstipulate. Mesem- 

 bryanthemum, Tetragonia. 



TRIBE II. AIZOIDE^;. Calyx-tube more or less elongate, free. Stamens perigynous, 

 inserted on the calyx-tube, rarely sub-hypogynous. Fruit capsular. Aizoon, Gatenia, Sesuviivm, 

 Trianthema, &c. 



TRIBE III. MOLLUGINE.E. Calyx 5-partite. Petals 3-5 or 0. Stamens hypogynous or 

 sub-perigynous. Fruit capsular, or of 3-5 cocci. Orygia, TelepMum, Mollugo, Pharnaceum t 

 Gisekia, Semonvillea, Limeum, &c. 



1 [I have introduced this order here to show the distribution of the genera adopted in the ' Genera Plantarum/ 

 but which are variously disposed by botanists ; it includesmost of the Ficoidea of Jussieu, as also Mesembryanthemea. 

 'Endl. (p. 402), Portulaccre, Endl. in part (p. 259), Tetragoniea, Lindl. (p. 464), and MoHiigin&e, Lindl. (p. 261). ED.] 



