86 COMMON CANADIAN WILD PLANTS. 



Order XLI. CACTA'CE^. (Cactus Family.) 



Very fleshy and commonly leafless plants; the stems 

 globose or columnar and angled, or of flattened joints, mostly 

 prickly. Flowers solitary, sessile. The numerous sepals 

 and petals adherent to the 1-celled ovary. Style 1, stigmas 

 many. Fruit a 1-celled berry with many seeds on the walls. 



Synopsis of the Geuern. 



1. Dlamilla'rla. Stems globose or oval, covered with spine-bearing 



tubercles, the flowers between these. 



2. Opnii'tia. Steins of flattened joints, bearing very small awl-shapec' 



leaves with clusters of bristles in their axils. 



1. MAJHILLA'RIA. Haw. 

 M. vivip'apa, Haw. stems 1-5 inches high, the tubercles 

 bearing bundles of 5-8 reddish-brown spines, surrounded by 

 numerous grayish ones. Flowers purple. — N. W. plains. 



8. OPUN'TIA, Tourn. Peioklt Pear. 

 0. Raflnes'quii, Engel. Stem prostrate, deep green. 

 Bristles reddish-brown. Spines few. Flowers yellow, some- 

 times with reddish centre. — Point Pelee. 



Order XLII. FICOI'DEjE. (Ice-Plant Family.) 



A miscellaneous group, embracing plants formerly in- 

 cluded in Caryophyllaoese and Portulacacese ; differing, 

 however, from true representatives of these in having parti- 

 tions in the ovary. Petals wanting in our genus. 



moiiI/U'GO, L. Oakpet-weed. 



M. vertieilla'ta, L. A prostrate much-branched herb, 

 growing in patches. Leaves spathulate, apparently verti- 

 cillate. Flowers on long axillary pedicels, clustered into a 

 sort of umbel. Sepals 5, white inside. Petals none. 

 Stamens mostly 3. Styles 3. Pod 3-celled, 3-valved, loculi- 

 cidal. the partitions breaking away from the many-seeded 

 axis. — Mostly in south-western Ontario. 



