^26 A VOYAGE TO ' Book VI, 



fivdy produce frefh leaves, the largeft being neareft to 

 the ilem, which is full of knots, as are alfo the branches, 

 and from thefe the leaves have their origir?.. The 

 ufual height of this plant is about three yards, which 

 it felJom exceeds. The feafon when the nopal dif- 

 plays all its beauty and vigour, is, like that of other 

 plants, from the fpring to the autumn, which at 

 Oaxaca, and other parts of North America, is at the 

 fame time as in Spain. Its bloffom is fm.all, of a 

 bright red, and in the fbape of a bud, from the centre 

 of which pro:^feds the tuna, a name given to its 

 fruit and as this increafes, the bloffom fades, till at 

 Jength it falls. V/hen the tuna, or fig, is ripe, the 

 ouiward ficin becomes white but the pulp is fo fully 

 impregnated with a deep red, that it tinges of a blood 

 Crlour the urine of thofe who eat it : a circumilance 

 of no fm.ali uneaimefs lo thofe who are unacquainted 

 wich this pariicular. Few fruits, however, are either 

 ipore wholeibme or pleafant. 



The ground where the nopal is intended to be 

 planted, muft be carefully cleanfed from all kinds of 

 weeds, as tbey drain the foil of thofe juices which 

 the nopal requires. Alfo after the cochineal is taken 

 froiP. the plant, which is never done till the infeds 

 are arrived at perfedion, all the fuperfluous leaves 

 are plucked off, that they may be fucceeded by others 

 the following year. For it mud be obferved, that 

 the cochineal v/hich are bred on young plants, thrive 

 much better, and are of a finer quality, than thofe 

 produced on fuch as have flood fome years. 



The cochineal was formerly imagined to be a fruit 

 or feed of fome particular plant-, an error which pro- 

 bably arofe from an ignorance of the manner in 

 which it is propagated; but, at prefent, every one is 

 convinced of its being an infed, agreeably to its 

 name, fignifying a v/ood-loufe, which generally breeds 

 , in damp places, efpecially in gardens. Thefe infeds, 

 by rolling themfelves up, form a little ball, fome- 



' thing 



