Extension and Use of the Cacti. 157 



We have now only to say a few words on the extension of the family in 

 other countries besides America. We are informed in De Candolle's excellent 

 Revue de la Famille des Cactees, p. 85., that Rhipsalis Cassytha is found on 

 the Isle de France and the Isle de Bourbon, and Cereus flagelliformis in 

 Arabia. There are no grounds for supposing that the former, which is a 

 parasite of unsightly appearance, was brought over from America, and become 

 naturalised, when it is taken into consideration that the American species 

 is there also ; but this could not easily be determined with certainty from the 

 herbariums of Commerson, Bory, and Sieber. The information respecting 

 Cereus flagelliformis is, on the contrary, doubtful, and cannot therefore, at 

 least at present, be cited as an example of the extension of the Cacti beyond 

 America. 



It is different with the Opuntias. On account of the almost endless con- 

 fusion of synonymes, particularly in cultivated species, we must be permitted 

 to deviate in some degree from the specific names, and to confine ourselves 

 merely to the appearance of the plants generally. We may, therefore, say 

 that the Opuntiae are found wild in the old world, in Asia, over the whole 

 Indian peninsula, extending northwards to the chain of mountains in China, in 

 a great part of tropical Africa, and in the Canary Islands ; also in all the 

 countries of Asia, Europe, and Africa, and about the Mediterranean Sea. 

 The northern limit in Europe is not the rocks near Final, in latitude 44°, but 

 in Switzerland, in the canton Tessin, and the warm valleys of Tyrol, north 

 from Botzen, in 47° north latitude. 



With respect to India, we are informed by Royle that Roxburgh enumerates 

 two kinds of Opuntia peculiar to that country ; viz. Cactus indica and C. 

 chinensis ; one of which is said to be a native of India, and the other of 

 China. One of them, probably the first, and, according to Wight and Arnott, 

 Opuntia DillenM, Bot. Mag., t. 255., has also been said by Ainslie to be indi- 



ductive stony heights, with a clayey soil, between Actopan and Zimapan. Cereus 

 columna Trajani Karw., on a similar soil, between Tehuacan and Loscues. 

 Echinocactus recurva Haw., E. glauca Karw., near Ayuguesco, in the pro- 

 vince of Oaxaca, on barren situations. Echinocactus phyllacantha Mart., E. 

 crispata Mart., E. anfractuosa Mart., E. KarwinskzY Zucc, Mammillaria 

 gladiata Mart., M. pycnacantha Mart., M. uberiformis Zucc, M. uncinata 

 Zucc, on maiden earth, in meadows, here and there scattered with bushes, 

 from 5,000 ft. to 6,000 ft. above the level of the sea. Echinocactus oxyptera 

 Zucc, E. spina Christz Zucc, in chinks of the rocks, with some clayey earth, 

 near St. Rosa de Toliman ; and, in like manner, E. PfehTeri Zucc. near Toll- 

 man. Mammillaria Karwinskiana Zucc, near Yxmiquilpan. M. Seitzidna 

 Mart., M. Zuccariniana Mart., M. carnea Zucc, M. polyedra Mart., M. sub- 

 polyedra Salm, M. cirrhifera Mart., M. Dyckid?ia Zucc, M. sphacelata Mart., 

 M. Stella aurata Mart., M. supertexta Mart., between Zimapan and Yxmi- 

 quilpan. Mammillaria macrothele Mart., Lehmanm L. et O., M. brevimamma 

 Zucc, M. exudans Zucc, near Actopan, in meadows about 6,000 ft. above the 

 level of the sea. Echinocactus spiralis Karw., at the foot of the Orizaba. E. 

 agglomerata Karw., near Tehuacan, on sandy unproductive meadows. — On 

 the limits of the cold region, from 7,000 ft. to 8,000 ft. above the level of the 

 sea, near St. Pedro Nolasco, were found Mammillaria mystax Mart., and M. 

 glochidiata Mart. ; M. elegans Dec, Acanthoplegma Lehm., near Yavesia, in 

 the province of Oaxaca, on strong clayey soil. M. rutila Zucc, on grassy 

 declivities near Atotonilco el Chico, on the Serra St. Rosa, about 8,000 ft. 

 above the level of the sea. Cereus flagriformis Zucc, C. Martians Zucc, C. 

 gemmatus Zucc, in the cold region near San Jose del Oro, on rocks. Mam- 

 millaria vetula Mart., M. supertexta Mart., in the above situation, 11,000 ft. 

 above the level of the sea. Echinocactus macrodisca Mart., on the Cambre, 

 at a place called El Reynosso, at a height of from 9,000 ft. to 10,000 ft. above 

 the level of the sea. 



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