The Tuna. ig^, 



THE TUNA. 



(From the Pacific Rural Press, xli. 180.) 



Probably no class of plants is more greatly admired or more thotP- 

 oughly detested than the Cactaceas — admired lor their oddity, tisrc 

 their beauty of form, for their lovely flowers and for their lusciouw- 

 fruit, the cacti are detested to almost an equal extent by the average 

 cattleman or rancher as a useless cumberer of the ground. 



The flattened oval or elliptical stems of the tuna, abundanti% 

 armed with a formidable array of spines, is the type of one of tlte 

 most familiar forms of cactus, and perhaps better known to Englistiw 

 speaking races as Indian tigs or prickly pears. 



Among the numerous known forms of Opuntia there are severM? 

 species which are very generally kuown to the Mexicans by thw> 

 name of tuna. O. tuna and O. ficus-indica are the two species^ t^ 

 which this name is more frequently applied, but the common wiii3t 

 varieties or species of flat-stemmed Opuntias are very generally iii)-- 

 cluded without distinction. 



These cacti are very widely utilized in Mexico and in portiou» 

 of the United States along the Mexican border in a countless numbK!f 

 of ways. The cattleman, after burning the spines from the teudep; 

 succulent joints, will feed them to his stock with profitable result^;, 

 or, in a treeless region, he will plant them as hedges around hite 

 •corrals or cultivated fields, thus utilizing what in the previous cajs& 

 he destroys— the plant's natural defense against total exterminatibm. 



Growing in dry, sandy or rocky soil, they thrive where scarifftp 

 any other vegetation can exist. Planted around the Californiam 

 Missions in the most fertile spots, they attain a most luxuriaartt 

 grov/th. Thus, they are naturally adapted not only to thrive itc 

 sterile districts and to prepare the barren soil for other classes otf 

 vegetation, but they are equally at home under the most advanced^ 

 stages of cultivation. 



The Cactacete are without exception, I believe, indigenous to tlte 

 American continent and the adjacent islands, but the tunas ia? 

 numerous varieties have become extensively naturalized and ws^ 

 also cultivated with considerable profit in the south of Europe. ]Sc 

 Sicily, Opuntia vulgaris is said to thrive in volcanic districts, whicljr. 

 would otherwise be barren of vegetation. 



The Mexican names nopal and tuna refer to the same species ofi 

 plants, but nopal refers to the leaf-like stem, Avhile tuna refers to i'^^ 

 fruit. From being used to indicate a part only of the plant thejr 

 have come to be generally applied to the whole. 



The tunas, naturalized around the Missions of Southern Califor:- 

 nia, were brought from Mexico by the Spanish padres, who trainwll 

 them into hedges around the Mission gardens and buildings. Thew 

 grow from ten to fifteen feet high, producing an abundance of larg^ , 

 •well-flavored, edible fruit. 



