HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



Prickly Pear. Indian Fig 



Opuntia ^vulgaris — Family, Cactus. Color, pale yellow. Sepals, 

 indefinite. Petals, about 8, united with the sepals into a short 

 tube, which is attached to the top of the i -celled ovary. Flowers, 

 about 2 inches broad. Stamens, many, their filaments long and 

 slender. Pistil, i, forming in fruit a fleshy, pear-shaped, edible 

 berry, i inch long. Leaves, very small, pale green, ^ inch long, 

 awl-shaped, with barbs or prickles in their axils, arranged spirally 

 on the fleshy, flattened, jointed stems. 



The flowers lie close to the flattened branches. Clusters 

 of short, greenish-yellow bristles underlie them and spring up 

 in the leaf - axils. The branches grow irregularly out of 

 one another, 2 to 4 inches long, oval in shape. 



0, Rafinesquii. — This is the only other Eastern species, with 

 longer jointed, deeper green branches, and larger flowers and fruit. 

 The flowers often have a reddish center. Bristles reddish brown, 

 otherwise much like the last. 



Both species grow on sandy soil or on flat rocks. Among 

 the hills of New Jersey they attain great perfection, the 

 pedestrian coming sometimes upon a large, flat rock cov- 

 ered with the yellow beauties basking in the direct heat 

 which they love so well. They are also found near the shore 

 from Nantucket to South Carolina, in sandy soil. 



The cactus is essentially a desert plant, adapted by its 

 habit of patient, slow growth, its succulent branches wherein 

 moisture is stored, and its leathery skin and few breathing- 

 pores which prevent evaporation, for life in arid regions, 

 where nothing else can grow. 



Some species bear edible, luscious fruit. Upon one — a 

 native of Mexico — the cochineal insect is fed, giving rise to 

 a large industry. In Arizona the fruit of one species of 

 cactus is thrown into the fire till the bristles are burned off. 

 It is then chopped open and fed to cattle. So juicy is this 

 fruit that it supplies drink as well as food for the animals in 

 places where water is often scarce and procured with diffi- 

 culty. The famous night-blooming cereus is a cactus. 



Seedbox. Rattlebox 



Ludvigia alternifblia. — Family, Evening Primrose. Color, yel- 

 low. Calyx - tube, short, with 4 lance - shaped or ovate, leaf- 

 like lobes. Petals, 4, in the upper axils, on short peduncles, 

 rather large, dropping when the plant is shaken. Stamens, 4. 



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