THE NEW OPUNTIAS 



best qualities of both parents, with surprising 

 productiveness. 



" Some of the best growers among the new 

 opuntias produced three or four times as much 

 weight of food per acre as did the wild thorny 

 ones under exactly the same conditions. But, 

 better yet, hardy ones were produced, which 

 will already withstand five to ten degrees 

 more freezing than others of the wild type. 

 This was not unexpected, as the opuntia is 

 surprisingly variable even in the wild state. 

 The best botanists, — even those who have 

 made the opuntia a special study, — declare it 

 to be one of the most difficult genera to 

 classify, as new forms are constantly appear- 

 ing, and the older ones so gradually and im- 

 perceptibly merge together. The facts, with- 

 out doubt, are that their ancestors had leaves 

 like other vegetation and were as thornless as 

 an apple tree, but in ages past were stranded 

 in a region which was gradually turning to a 

 desert, perhaps by the slow evaporation of 

 some great inland lake or sea. Being thus 

 stranded, those plants survived which could 

 adapt themselves to the heat and drought, each 

 year, as the seasons passed, becoming more 



375 



