THE NEW OPUNTIAS 



— that his attention was attracted to the cac- 

 tus. If he could take the cactus, possessed of 

 unquestioned excellencies as a forage plant, as 

 well as being of marked edibility for man, and 

 convert it, man's implacable, defiant foe, into 

 man's obedient servant, the problem would be 

 solved. 



He selected, as the cactus on which to begin 

 work, the opuntia, named from a city called 

 Opus, in Locris. The particular plant upon 

 which he first began work was the common 

 prickly pear {Opuntia vulgaris). Concerning 

 the opuntia, Mr. Burbank says that he was 

 early impressed with its possibilities, when 

 combined with other species, because of its 

 hardiness, its vigor, its rapidity of growth, and 

 its ability to adapt itself to a wide variety of 

 conditions. So he set about securing from all 

 over the world different varieties of the opun- 

 tias. Mexico, Central and South America, 

 North and South Africa, Japan, Australia, 

 Hawaii, and the South Sea Islands were 

 drawn upon for a working stock. Hardy wild 

 species were secured also from various parts of 

 the United States. He drew liberally upon 

 species far different from the opuntias for the 



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