160 Extension and Use of the Cacti. 



qualities, and the pulpy matter is used as poultices for softening sores or ab- 

 scesses ; and whole C'acti, or some cut in pieces, are thrown by the natives 

 into dirty water, to purify it. 



In Mexico, according to Von Karwinski, the tender shoots of Opuntia No- 

 palilio are eaten as vegetables ; and the flesh of Echinocactus cornigera, and 

 species nearly allied to it, are cut in slices like pumpkins, and preserved in 

 sugar. 



According to Poppig, the spines of many of the Cerei are used in Peru as 

 knitting-needles. 



It is well known that the fruit of many species is eaten, particularly that of 

 several of the Opuntia?. In the south of Europe, the most southern part of 

 Italy, Greece, and Spain, these fruit are a favourite kind of food ; and this is 

 found to be the case wherever the Opuntia grows wild, or is acclimatised. In 

 Spain, Karwinski informs us that the love of eating this fruit is carried even 

 to a passion. Its time for ripening is in September, when the enjoyment of 

 this fruit is at its height, and which only lasts about a fortnight, on account of 

 the rapid decay of the fruit. Hundreds of venders sit in the streets, stripping 

 this favourite food off the Opuntias, with their hands fearfully swollen from 

 pricks of the spines ; and they perform the operation with so much dexterity, 

 that it recals to mind the opening of oysters on the sea coast. 



Many admirers of this fruit eat a hundred at a time, and several people die 

 every year in consequence of having partaken too freely of this delicacy, 

 Death from this excess is generally as sudden as that from cholera, and par- 

 ticularly so to those who try to mitigate the complaint by drinking brandy. 

 The fruit of the Opuntia is also highly valued as food in Mexico. 



The most favourite species in Mexico are the Alfajayuca, and the Tuna de 

 Castilla. The former has very large branch joints (Astglieder), free from 

 spines ; and it bears a fruit of the size of a large man's fist, which is almost void 

 of spines, and of a green or yellowish colour. The interior of this fruit has an 

 exceedingly agreeable taste, and a sweet soft flesh. The fruit of the latter, 

 which, according to tradition, was brought from Spain to the colonies, is 

 smaller than that of the cultivated plants of the same species in the mother 

 country, and is furnished with strong spines ; its red flesh is also very well tasted. 

 These two species are particularly used for breeding the cochineal insect. 

 The fruit of many of the varieties of Tuna and of O. Nopalilio is also eaten. 



Many of the Cardones, that is the high, many-branched, strongly-spined 

 Cerei have edible fruit, one of which, in Mexico, is tolerably large, and of a 

 deep red ; the other is black, and only about the size of a cherry ; and, on 

 account of its resemblance to the fruit of the Primus Capollin (Cerasus 

 Capollin Arb. Brit.), has obtained the name of Capulin. The sour berries 

 also of the Mammillaria are eaten by the Indians, and called Chilitos : the 

 diminutive of Chile, the fruit of the Spanish pepper, which they resemble in 

 colour, and somewhat in appearance. The berries of many of the Pereskzte, 

 the so-called Groseilles d'Amerique, are likewise eaten in the West Indies; 

 whereas, on the contrary, the fruits of the species of Echinocacti and Rhip- 

 salis are every where left to the birds. 



The use of many kinds of Opuntias for the cochineal insect is already well 

 known. This useful species is called Nopal by the Indians in Mexico, and all 

 the others are known by the names of Tuna, or Tuna brava. 



The Opuntiae and Cerei which grow in very barren places, and in crevices 

 of rocks, are much famed ; because their roots penetrate into the smallest 

 chinks which separate stones, and reduce them nearly to powder, and thus 

 with the addition of their own decayed remains, the soil is improved. De 

 Candolle (Revue, p. 105.) relates that, at the foot of Mount Etna, the old 

 fields of lava are by this means gradually brought to a productive state. Cut- 

 tings of Opuntiae are planted in the chinks of the rocks, which thrive well, 

 and produce an abundance of fruit. This is also mentioned in the Linncea, by 

 Dr. Phillipi (On the Vegetation of Etna, 1832, p. 739.), with the addition, that 

 there are there innumerable varieties with pale red, dark red, and green fruit, 



