OPTTNTIA. 
315 
globose head slightly overtopping the anthers. Ov. inversely 
clavate or turbinate naked but with thick tufts of short tine 
y. -tawny bristles with pencils of stronger and longer projecting 
from them, arranged quincuncially or spirally, rugged or uneven 
and often plicate towards the base ; ovules numerous, attached 
to the sides of ov. by short funicles. Fr. when ripe light apple- 
gr. or yellowisli-gr., 2-3 in. long, l|-2 broad, oblong-ovoidal 
sub turbinate or a little contracted at the base, truncate and 
concave or cupped at top, even and scentless ; pale greenish-w. 
or whitish within like a gooseberry, with brown or ’ yellowish 
specks and stains, and small flattened round hard bony dusky- 
brown or or. seeds dispersed through the whole fleshy pulp, 
which is very melting cool and juicy, and though at first seldom 
relished as insipid, not ungrateful to the palate, possessing a 
flavour of cucumber or burnet ( Poterium ) combined with a very 
slight taste of melon in addition to its pleasant watery sweet- 
ness. In a bad feverish cold I have experienced its refreshing 
gratefulness and benefit. The collectors of the fr., on gathering 
them with a small sickle or pruning-liook (pod ao), at once clear 
them of then* treacherous tufts of setce by rubbing them strongly 
on the ground with the soles of their bare feet, which are too 
hard-skinned to suffer from the operation. In eating, the outer 
rind is adroitly split lengthwise and carved off, and the fleshy 
coherent pulp turned out whole and entire as from a case. 
The deciduous fine short subtile pungent yet fragile bristles 
of the fr. or younger joints, if carelessly touched or handled, 
immediately penetrate the skin, insinuating themselves gra- 
dually even through the clothes; and being at once minute, 
fragile and transparent, are very difficult to extract, causing no 
6mall annoyance. 
Any change of col. in the fl. of this pi. is a most rare and ex- 
ceptional anomaly. Such variation has however occurred to 
me twice in Mad. in the course of 25 or 30 years, and once in 
the Canaries amidst myriads of pi. with fl. of the normal col. 
In Mad., April 10th 1837, a pi. a little below the Fort at the 
Louros on the Cani^o road near Funchal bore on the same 
branch with others of the usual col. a single fl. of a bright clear 
y., with merely a few streaks on the outer pet. or sep. of the 
usual dull or. -red, and which seen apart might have been taken 
for a fl. of O. vuh/aris Mill. (Cactus Opuntia L.). Again, June 
lltli 1847, on the path from S. Martinho down to the Praia 
formosa, I found a pi. amidst a bed of others of the common 
dull red-fld. sort, with several fl. of a uniform bright lemon-y. 
