] 50 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



(Zucc.) and by E. platyceras (Lem.) (Wislizenus, Tour to 

 Northern Mexico, 1848, p. 97.) The Echinocactus stainesii 

 reaches from 2 to 2J feet diameter; E. visnago, from 

 Mexico, upwards of 4 English feet high, is above 3 English 

 feet diameter, and weighs from 700 to 2000 Ibs. : while 

 Cactus nanus, which we found near Sondorillo, in the pro- 

 vince of Jaen, is so small that, being only slightly rooted in 

 the sand, it gets between the toes of dogs. The Melo- 

 cactuses, which are full of juice in the dryest seasons like 

 the Eavenala of Madagascar (forest-leaf in the language of 

 the country, from rave, raven, a leaf, and ala, the Javanese 

 halas, a forest), are vegetable fountains; and the manner in 

 which the horses and mules stamp them open with their 

 hoofs, at the risk of injury from the spines, has been already 

 mentioned (Yol. I. p. 19). Since the last quarter of a 

 century Cactus opuntia has extended itself in a remarkable 

 manner into Northern Africa, Syria, Greece, and the whole 

 of the South of Europe ; even penetrating, in Africa, from 

 the coasts far into the interior of the country, and associat- 

 ing itself with the indigenous plants. 



When one has been accustomed to see Cactuses only in 

 our hothouses, one is astonished at the degree of density 

 and hardness which the ligneous fibres attain in old 

 cactus stems. The Indians know that cactus wood is in- 

 corruptible, and excellent for oars and for the thresholds of 

 doors. There is hardly anything in vegetable physiognomy 

 which makes so singular and ineffaceable an impression on 

 a newly arrived person, as the sight of an arid plain thickly 



