224 A SKETCH OF THE CACTUS TRIBE. 



the hand is drawn over them, they catch in, and an 

 insufferable itching, terminating in a slight inflammation, 

 spreads over all the parts which have been touched. The 

 Opuntia ferox is especially remarkable for these spines, 

 whence its name, the savage. Among the hairs and 

 smaller spines arise very long and thick spines, in different 

 form and number, which give the best characters for the 

 determination of the species. In some, these are so hard 

 and strong, that they even lame the wild Asses which 

 incautiously wound themselves, when kicking off the 

 spines to reach the means to still their thirst. In Opuntia 

 Tunaj which is the kind most frequently used for hedges, 

 they are so large that even the Buffaloes are killed by 

 the inflammation following from these spines running 

 into their breasts. It was this species also, which was 

 planted in a triple row, as a boundary line between the 

 English and French in the Island of St. Christopher. 



This brief review may then suffice to justify the 

 interest which this family has now generally awakened. 

 The closer investigation of it affords rich matter for the 

 Naturalist, its manifold uses, especially in its native 

 clime, worthily occupies the attention of State Econo- 

 mists ; but more significant than this, through the 

 universal ugliness of form, they become for the phi- 

 losopher of Nature a subject which reminds him how 

 inadequate, at present, is all that we have imagined 

 toward the deeper comprehension of Nature, and how 

 endless a road still lies before us, which must be traversed 

 before we may venture to commence the building of a 

 system of the Philosophy of Nature, if we would not 

 bring forward, instead of scientific proof, the fair but ever 

 false dreams of a poetical imagination. 



