THE CACTUSES. 
41 
Til© leaves of several species of bromelia fumisli excel- 
lent twine for ropes. The inliabitants of tlie banks of tlie 
river San Francisco, in l^razil, weave their fisbing-nets 
with tbe fibres of the Caron, and the iilainents of the 
Cranata de rede furaisli a cordage of amazing strength 
and durability. 
The foliage of the screw-pines, so widely extended over 
the East Indian and South Sea Isles, where they form a 
prominent feature in the landscape, closely resembles 
that of the bromelias, while the stem (round which the 
serrated leaves ascend in spiral convolutions, till they 
terminate in a pendulous crown), the aerial roots, and 
the fruit, remind one of the palms, the mangroves, and 
the coniferte. 
Tlie sweet-smelling screw-pine, whose fruits, when 
perfectly mature, resemble large rich coloured pine-apples, 
plays an important part in the household economy of the 
coral-islanders of the fSouth Seas. The inhabitants of the 
Wulgrave Archipelago, where the cocoa-nut is rare, live 
almost exclusively on the juicy pulp and the pleasant 
kernels of the fmit. The dried leaves serve to thatch their 
cottages, or are made use of as a material for mats and 
raiment. The wood is hard and durable. They string 
together the beautiful red and yellow-coloured nuts for 
ornaments, and wear the flowers as garlands. When the 
tree is in fnll blossom, the air around is impregnated with 
a delicious odour. 
The grotesque forms of the Cactuses possess the stiff 
rigidity of the aloes. Their fleshy stems, covered with a 
grey-green coriaceous rind, generally exhibit bunches of 
hair and thorns instead of leaves. The angular columns of 
the Cerei, or torch-cactuses, rise to the height of sixty feet 
—generally branchless, sometimes strangely ramified, as 
candelabras, while others creep like ropes upon the ground, 
or hang, snake-like, from the trees, on which they are 
parasitically rooted. The opuntias are unsymmeti-ically 
constructed of thick flat joints Bpringing one from the other, 
F 
