CACTACEAE (CACTUS FAMILY) 289 
few spines or a single strong one, sometimes none. Flowers yellow, 
sometimes with a reddish center, nearly three inches broad, the 
many petals slightly united at base, the stamens very numerous, 
the style with two- to seven-parted stigma; ovary inferior or 
below the flower and one-celled. Fruit a 
thick club-shape, nearly two inches long, not 
spiny, with a fleshy purplish pulp, edible, 
with an insipid or slightly acid taste. 
Means of control ~ 
Prickly Pear may be killed by burning, as 
stockmen of the arid lands discovered when 
removing the spines for the benefit of their 
cattle, especially if the work is done with 
a gasoline torch applied to the growing 
plants. On land capable of supporting 
better growths cultivation and liberal fer- _ Fic. 202.— Prickly 
tilization of the ground should be the Pear (Opuntia Raphi- 
method used for suppression of the prickly so oe alae 
pest, reseeding heavily with some of the most drought-resistant 
grasses and clovers. 
BRITTLE PRICKLY PEAR 
Opintia fragilis, Haw. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by the rooting of 
broken joints. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: July to September. 
Range: Minnesota to British Columbia, southward to Utah, Colo- 
rado, and Kansas. ; 
Habitat: Dry soil; prairies, rocky foothills. 
Plants rather small, partly prostrate, the joints very numerous 
-and breaking away so readily that they often attach themselves to 
animals by their many spines and are thus transported to new lo- 
calities. Joints small, only one or two inches long, roundly ovate 
or club-like, slightly flattened, the fruit-bearing ones rather more 
compressed. Leaves small, red, awl-like, soon falling away; the 
tiny protuberances in the axils white-woolly, bearing a cluster of 
U 
