42 APPENDIX, 



together appeared to be covered with a cloth or veil of the 

 molt vivid crimfon colour. 



The firft thing that prefented itfelf was the firft moot 

 of this extraordinary tree. It was a fingle ftalk, about 

 fix inches meafured acrofs, in eight divifions, regular- 

 ly and beautifully fcolloped and rounded at the top, joining 

 in the centre at three feet and a half high. Upon the outfide 

 of thefe fcollops were a fort of eyes or fmall knots, out of 

 every one of which came five thorns, four on the fides and 

 one in the centre, fcarce half an inch long, fragil, and of no 

 refinance, but exceedingly fharp and pointed. Its next pro- 

 cefs is to put out a branch from the firft or fecond fcollop 

 near the top, others fucceed from all directions ; and this 

 ftalk, which is foft and fucculent, of the confiftence of the 

 aloe, turns by degrees hard and ligneous, and, after a few 

 years, by multiplying its branches, aflumes the form as in the 

 fecond plate. It is then a tree, the lower part of which is 

 wood, the upper part, which is fucculent, has no leaves ; thefe 

 are fupplied by the fluted, fcolloped, ferrated, thorny fides of 

 its branches. Upon the upper extremity of thefe branches 

 grow its flowers, which are of a golden colour, rofaceous, 

 and formed of five round or almoil oval petala ; this is fuc- 

 ceeded by a triangular fruit, firft of a light green with a 

 flight caft of red, then turning to a deep crimfon, with ftreaks 

 of white both at top and bottom. In the infide it is divided 

 into three cells, with a feed in each of them ; the cells are of 

 a greenifli white, the feed round, and with no degree of hu- 

 midity or moifture about it, yet the green leaves contain a 

 quantity of bluifh watery milk, almoft incredible. 



Upon 



