OPUNTIA. 



196 



OPUNTIA. 



uial plants, natives of Europe, gene- 

 rally -with yellow flowers, of low 

 growth, and suitable for rockwork. 

 They should be grown in sandy peat. 



Opera Girls. — See Mantisia. 



Ophrys. — Orchidacece. — Dwarf 

 plants belonging to the terrestrial 

 orchideae, with very curious flowers. 

 One of these, 0. apifera, looks as 

 though a bee were buried in the 

 flower ; another, O. aramfera, has 

 the lip in the form of a spider ; and 

 in a third, O. muscifera, the whole 

 flower resembles a fly. For the cul- 

 ture of these plants see Orchis. 



Opuntia. — Cacfacece. — The 

 Prickly Pear. This is the hardiest of 

 all the genera of cacti, as there are 

 some species which will live in the 

 open ground in England, with only a 

 slight protection from frost during 

 winter ; and they grow freely in the 

 south of Europe. The hardiest kind 

 is Opuntia vulgaris, of which there 

 are forests on Mount Etna, growing 

 in chinks and crevices in the rocks, 

 where there appears scarcely soil 

 enough to contain their roots. They 

 are equally abundant in the rocky 

 districts of Spain, where they grow so 

 vigorously, and so apparently in a 

 state of nature, that a doubt has arisen 

 whether they are not natives of Spain 

 transported at a very early period to 

 South America, instead of being, as is 

 generally supposed, natives of Peru, 

 introduced by the first Spaniards who 

 visited that country, into Spain. The 

 fruit which we call the prickly pear, 

 but which is called Tuna in Spain, is 

 so great a favourite in that country, 

 that Karwinsky tells us, in Septem- 

 ber, hundreds of vendors sit in the 

 streets of the Spanish towns busily 

 employed in stripping the fruit off the 

 branches which have been gathered 

 loaded with it ; their hands and arms 

 being fearfully swollen with the 

 spines which they have not leisure to 

 avoid, so great is the impatience of 



the purchasers to obtain the fruit. 

 He adds that many Spaniards will eat 

 above a hundred prickly pears in one 

 day ; and that some indulge to such 

 an excess, that they bring on cholera, 

 which is often attended by death, es- 

 pecially if the sufferer attempts to 

 mitigate his disease by drinking 

 brandy. The cochineal insect is bred 

 on Opuntia cochiniltifera, or the 

 Nopal tree, a native of Mexico, and 

 much more tender than the common 

 kind. A white woolly substance ap- 

 pears on the leaf-like stems of the 

 tree, like the American blight on 

 apple trees ; and this substance con- 

 ceals the female cochineal iusect, 

 which is a kind of coccus or scale, 

 resembling that on the pine-apple 

 and the vine. The male insect is 

 winged, and it is only the female that 

 produces the dye. When fully grown 

 the insects are brushed off the plant 

 with the tail of a squirrel or a deer ; 

 and they are killed by drying them in 

 ovens which makes them curl up, and 

 in this state they are ready for sale. 

 It is on account of the value attached 

 to the cochineal as an article of com- 

 merce, that a branch of the Nopal 

 tree is introduced into the arms of the 

 republic of Mexico. 



All the kinds of Opuntia require 

 abundance of dry air and intense solar 

 light, and on this account, they do 

 best in the open air on a sunny bank 

 sheltered by a wall faciug the south. 

 In a stove, especially if other plants 

 be grown in it requiring a moist tem- 

 perature, the Opuntias never produce 

 either flowers or fruit ; and, iudeed, 

 often die without any apparent cause. 

 It is hardly possible for any situation 

 to be too hot and dry for these plants, 

 as, like all the plants destined to live 

 in burning sands, they are furnished 

 with very few stomata or breathing 

 pores, whilst they have abundant or- 

 gans of absorption to draw as much 

 moisture as possible from the soil ; 



