266 MEMBERS OF THE CACTACEJ2. 



It was in Texas, and in the rocky, arid, and hilly plains, that the 

 French botanist Trecul discovered several notable varieties of Yuccas, 

 to one of which, a new, and certainly the most beautiful species, his 

 name has very justly been affixed : the Yucca Trfauleana. It raises 

 its tall panicle of gorgeous flowers from the centre of a crown of glossy, 

 rigid, spear-like leaves, like a victorious trophy. In Eastern Texas 

 we note the first appearance, in the drier and stonier portions of the 

 Prairies, of a representation of the family Cactacece, the Opuntia 

 frutescens, frequently growing side by side with the Silpkium 

 terebinthinaceum. The Opuntia is more generally known as the 

 " Indian Fig " or " Prickly Pear," from the large purple juicy fruits 

 which it yields. The Silphium belongs to the family of Composites. 

 But Western Texas is the true birth-place of these oleaginous plants, 

 some of which, such as the Echinocactus robusta, the Mamillaria 

 rodantha, and the Opuntia microdasys ("small -thorny Opuntia"), are 

 cultivated in our apartments, where they require but veiy little 

 attention. M. Trecul has discovered in this region a new and rare 

 variety of Echinocactus (E. Treculeanus], some kinds of Cereus, and, 

 especially, the Cereus Perwvianus, a beautiful plant with large showy 

 flowers. 



Such are the principal plants which, in North America, charac- 

 terize the vegetation of the Prairies and the Savannahs. This rapid 

 and condensed description will show the reader that the species most 

 extensively spread belong to the genera in which are grouped the more 

 common inhabitants of our own Old World meadows and grassy plains. 



If we now transport ourselves, on the poet's winged Pegasus, that 

 takes no account of distance or of natural obstacles, to the Equatorial 

 zone of the New World into Guatemala, for example we shall find 

 the undulating and verdurous prairies giving place to high table- 

 lands furrowed by deep and romantic ravines. Their botanical 

 interest, however, is trivial, and their vegetation of a meagre and 

 stunted kind. But between Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras, 

 lies an extensive valley, locally named Llanora, sown with numer- 



