136 cactacejE. (cactus family.) 



Ordee 45. CACTACE^. (Cactus FAMinr.) 



Fleshy and thickened mostly leafless plants, of pectUiar aspect, globular, 

 or columnar and many-angled, or flattened and jointed, usually with prickles. 

 Flowers solitary, sessile ; the sepals and petals numerous, imbricated in sev- 

 eral rows, adherent to the 1-celled ovary. — Stamens numerous, with long 

 and slender filaments, inserted on the inside of the tube or cup formed by 

 the union of the sepals and petals. Style 1 : stigmas numerous. Fruit a 

 1-celled berry, with numerous campylotropous seeds on several parietal 

 placentae. Albumen little or none. — ■ Represented east of the Mississippi 

 • only by 



1. OPtriWTIA, Toum. Pkickly Pear. Indian Pig. 



Sepals and petals not united into a prolonged tube, spreading, regular, the inner 

 roundish. Berry often priekly. Seeds with albumen. Cotyledons large, folia- 

 ccous in germination. — Stem composed of joints, bearing very small awl-shaped 

 and usually deciduous leaves arranged in a spiral order, with clusters of barbed 

 bristles and often spines also in their axils. Flowers yellow, opening in sun- 

 shine for more than one day. (A name of Tlieophrastus, originally belonging 

 to some different plant.) 



1. O. VUlg^aris, Mill. (Cactus Opuntia, L.) Low, prostrate-spreading, 

 pale, with flat and broadly obovato joints ; the minute leaves ovate-subulate and 

 a,ppressed ; the axils bristly, rarely with a few small spines ; flowers sulphur- 

 yellow ; beny nearly smooth, eatable. — Sandy fields and dry rocks, from Nan- 

 tucket, Mass. southward, usually near the coast. June. 



Var. ? Rafinesqilii. Larger, dark gi-een, mostly spiny, witli spreading 

 and awl-shaped leaves. 0. Rafinesquii, Engdm. — Illinois and southward, and 

 probably in Virginia. 



Order 46. GROSSULACE^. (Currant Family.) 



Low shrubs, sometimes prickly, ivith alternate and palmately-lobed leaves, 

 a 5-lobed calyx coheiing with the 1-celled ovary, and bearing 5 stamens alter- 

 nating with as many small petals. Fruit a 1-celled berry, with 2 parietal 

 placenta, crowned with the shrivelled remains of the calyx. Seeds numer- 

 ous, anatropous, with a gelatinous outer coat, and a minute embryo at the 

 base of hard albumen. Styles 2, distinct or united. — Leaves mostly 

 plaited in the bud, often clustered in the axils, the small flowers from the 

 same clusters, or from separate lateral buds. — Comprises only the genus 



1. RIBES; L. CURKANT. GrOOSEBERRY. 



Character same as of the order. (Name of Arabic origin.) 



§1. GEOSSULARIA, Toum. (Goosebeeet.) — Stems mosily hearing thorns 

 at the base of the lea/stalks or dusta's of leaves, and often with scattered bristly 

 prickles; berries prickly or smooth. 



