MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1097 



of Schumaun's ' Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen,' which is I believe the 

 standard work on the subject. Species No. 1 is, I believe, 0. Jicus indica, 

 Mill., or a closely allied species. Species No. 2 is O. tuna, Mill. (Schumann 

 gives O. dillenii, Haw. as a synonym). Species No. 3 is very close to O. 

 nigricans. Haw., if it is not that species. Schumann remarks that O. 

 nigricans, Haw. is related to O. tuna, which is certainly true of my 

 No. 3, but Schumann says the flowers of O, nigricans, Haw. are yellow. 

 Burkill says the flowers of his O. nigricans are orange and that O. elatior, 

 difters from O. nigricans in the flower being lemon yellow at opening, he 

 identifies the Oixmtia at Delhi and Jaipur as O. elatior. I agree that the 

 Opuntia at Delhi is the same as the one at Jaipur, I have not seen the 

 flowers of the former place but I saw them at the beginning of the flowering 

 season in Jaipur, and whether just open or still in bud the petals .were orange 

 and hence according to the key this Opuntia is O. nigricans. The most obvi- 

 ous explanation of the confusion seems to be that 0. elatior and O. nigricans 

 are really one species, the flowers of which are either yellow or orange. 

 Species No. 4 is O. monacantha, Haw. Burkill mentions one species of 

 Cereus in his article, viz., C. j^terogonus, though he does not record it from 

 any place in N.-W. India. There is a large columnar Cactus in this region, 

 it is used bj-^ villagers for fencing their fields in and around Anandpur, 

 District Ambala, I have not seen it elsewhere except in gardens. This 

 Cactus is not Cereus pterogonus, Lem. it is probably Cereus peruvianus, Mill. 



The spreading of Opuntias is interesting to study, the fruits ripen of 

 all the species I have mentioned, those of No. 1 in abundance, and they 

 are eaten to some extent by birds, yet birds have little or no share in 

 the spreading of the plants at any rate in N.-W. India. In the plains I 

 have never seen young Opuntias springing up to any distance from old 

 clumps such as one would expect if they were spread by birds. During 

 nearly two years' residence in the Kangra District I took every opportunity 

 to examine young Opuntia monacantha plants and with one possible 

 exception found none of the young plants had arisen from seed. They are 

 spread mainly if not entirely by cuttings either planted in hedges by man 

 or by joints broken oft' by wind or cattle, taking root as they lie on the 

 ground. On steep ground Opuntias spread fairly rapidly down hill and 

 joints are sometimes transported by water and may be found rooting on 

 banks of streams where they have been deposited by floods. In the case 

 of species No. I, and O. monacantha the whole fruit after dropping 

 oft" may take root in the same way as a joint, in fact occasionally they do 

 not fall off the mother plant but sprout and grow just as a joint would. 

 Except in these two species I have not observed the rooting of the whole 

 fruit, but it may perhaps occur with all the species. 



E. N. PARKER, 



Lahore, '22>rd May 1912. D. C. Forests. 



48 



