ORAC] 



Kty {feaSurj? of 33a tang. 



818 



feet, nearly all being more or less armed 

 with strong sharp spines. A few have 

 jointless cylindrical stems and branches, 

 but hyfar the greater number have both 

 the stems and branches jointed, the joints 

 being generally thick and flat and some- 

 what resembling leaves in form ; but the 

 true leaves are very small and fleshy, and 

 soon drop off, being found only on the 

 young branches, one being seated under 

 each of the tufts of bristles and spines 

 with which the branches are furnished, 

 and from which also the flowers arise. 

 These latter are usually of a yellow or red- 

 dish orange-colour, and remain open for 

 several days. The sepals and petals are 

 undistinguishable, the outer or sepal-like 

 segments being narrow and often green, 

 but passing gradually into the petal-like 

 ones, which are broad, coloured, and widely 

 expanded; the numerousfree stamens are 

 shorter than the petals, but almost as long 

 as the cylindrical style, and the stigma has 

 from five to seven thick erect rays. The 

 fruits are pear or egg-shaped, with a broad 

 scar at the top left by the falling-away of 

 the flower, and more or less covered with 

 tufts of small spines, their fleshy rind 

 enclosing numerous somewhat kidney- 

 shaped seeds nestling in pulp. 



Optintia vulgaris. 



Tuna is a Spanish-American name given 

 to several Opuntias, but botanists have 

 adopted it as the scientific name of asingle 

 species, 0. Tuna, a native of various parts 

 of America, from Quito to Mexico and the 

 West Indies, from some of which countries 

 it has been introduced into, and now grows 

 abundantly in, Southern Europe, Northern 

 Africa, the Canaries, Madeira, &c. It is 

 one of the tallest growing species, having, 

 when old, an erect woody stem sometimes 

 ns much as twenty feet high, and jointed 

 branches from four to eight or more inches 

 long, of an oval or oblongform, and having 

 distant bundles of spines growing from 

 bristly cushions, each bundle consisting of 

 from four to six, or sometimes fewer, stiff 

 unequal spreading yellowish spines. It 

 has dull reddish-orange flowers, and pro- 

 duces pear-shaped fleshy fruits two or three 

 inches long and of a rich carmine colour 

 when ripe. The Tuna, on account of its 



prickly nature, is much used for hedges, 

 and in Mexico it is cultivated for rearing 

 the cochineal insect (see Nopalea), besides 

 which several parts are turned to useful 

 account. The sweet juicy fruits, called 

 Prickly Pears, are extensively eaten and 

 greatly esteemed for their cooling proper- 

 ties; they contain an abundance of sac- 

 charine matter, and sugar has been made 

 from them in Sicily ; at Naples their juice 

 is used as a water-colour, and in the West 

 Indies for colouring confectionery ; while 

 in Mexico a beverage called Colinche is 

 prepared from them. The old branches and 

 stems contain a network consisting of an- 

 nual layers of hard woody fibres, of which 

 the French in Algiers make various orna- 

 mental articles, such as vases, fancy bas- 

 kets, flower-trays, &£, and even use it for 

 veneering. 



O. vulgaris has likewise been introduced 

 from America, and become naturalised in 

 Southern Europe, the Canaries, and 

 Northern Africa. [A. S.] 



ORACH, or ORACHE. An old-fashioned 

 potherb, Atriplex hortensis. 



ORANGE. Citrus Aurantium, which fur- 

 nishes one of the most grateful of fruits, 

 the Orange of commerce. — , BERGA- 

 MOT. Citrus Bergamia. -.HORNED. A 

 monstrous form of Citrus Aurantium, hav- 

 ing the carpels separated. — , MANDARIN. 

 The Chinese name for a large-fruited deep- 

 coloured variety of orange. — , JAMAICA. 

 Clycosmis citnfolia. — , MOCK. Philadel- 

 phus coronarius. — , NATIVE, of Australia. 

 Citriobatus. — , OSAGE. Madura a,uran- 

 tiaca. — , QUITO. The berries of Solanum 

 quitoense. —.SEVILLE. Citrus Bigarmi; a. 

 — , SWEET. Citrus Aurantium. — , WILD. 

 Brypetes glauca. 



ORANGE COLOUR. The same as apricot 

 colour, but redder ; as in a ripe orange. 



ORANGER. (Fr/> Citrus. - DES OZA- 

 GES. Madura aurantiaca. — DU SAVE- 

 TIER. Solanum Pseudo-capsicum. 



ORANGE-ROOT. Hydrastis canadensis. 



ORANGE-THORN. A colonial name for 



Citriobatus. 



ORANIA. A genus of palms containing 

 only two species, one of which is a native 

 of New Guinea and the other of the pe- 

 ninsula of Malacca. Both have tall un- 

 armed closely-ringed stems, crowned with 

 a dense head of large pinnate leaves, the 

 leaflets of which are of oblique form and 

 irregularly toothed or jagged at their tips. 

 The flower-spikes are enclosed in double 

 spathes, the inner of which is woody and 

 completely closed, but ultimately bursts 

 along one side, and the outer two-keeled 

 and open at the top ; the flowers are uni- 

 sexual, the upper portion of the spike being 

 occupied by male flowers in pairs, and the 

 lower by solitary females between two 

 males. The Malayan species, O. macrocla- 

 dus, is called Ebool by thenatives. Nothing 

 is known of the uses of either it, or the New 

 Guinea species, O. regalis. [A. S.] 



