701 
LVIII. CACTEiE. 
2. *OPUNTIA, Mill. 
(Some species plentiful near Opus, a city of Locris.) 
Sepals and petals numerous, adnate to the ovary, not produced into a tube ; 
the interior petaloid, obovate, spreading. Stamens numerous, shorter than the 
petals. Style cylindrical, constricted at the base ; stigmas numerous, thick, 
erect. Berry umbillicate at the apex, tuberculate, often prickly. Embryo 
somewhat spiral, nearly terete ; plumule small. — Shrubby plants with articulate 
branches ; the joints (rarely terete) mostly compressed and dilated, bearing 
fascicles of prickles or bristles arranged in a quincuncial spiral order. Flowers 
yellow, red or purple, arising from the clusters of prickles or along the margins of 
the joints. Stamens somewhat irritable. 
1. O. vulgaris (common), Mill. Prickly Pear. Joints ovate, prickles 
short, numerous, usually with several strong subulate spines. Flowers yellow. 
Fruit crimson, nearly smooth. 
Hab.: Overruns many inland localities. 
2. O. ferox (fierce), Hmc. Joints oblong, elongated; prickles strong, 
setaceous, numerous, whitish, in fascicles, longer than the wool from which they 
issue, one of which in each fascicle is longer than the rest. Flowers yellow. 
Fruit red. 
Hab.: This species has become naturalised in the Goondiwindi district. 
Order L1X. FICOIDE.®. 
Calyx persistent, free or adnate to the ovary at the base, divided to the middle 
or to the base into 5 or 4 rarely more or only 3 lobes or segments, imbricate in 
the bud or very rarely valvate. Petals none or indefinite and narrow, very rarely 
equal in number to the calyx segments, inserted at their base. Stamens few or 
many, usually indefinite, or not corresponding in number to the calyx-lobes, or 
rarely equal in number to them, inserted on the calyx-tube, or liypogynous when 
the calyx is divided to the base ; filaments free or united in a cup at the base ; 
anthers with parallel cells opening longitudinally. Ovary inferior, half superior 
or superior, 3 to 5 or more celled, rarely 2-celled or reduced to a single carpel ; 
styles as many as cells, free or united at the base, usually filiform and stigmatic 
alon" the inner side, or rarely with terminal stigmas or very short; ovules 1,2 
or more in each cell usually inserted on a basal placenta more or less adnate to 
the axis or inner angle of the cell. Fruit a capsule or rarely fleshy or drupaceous, 
opening loculicidally, septicidally, or both, in as many or twice as many valves 
as cells, or transversely circumsciss or indehiscent. Seeds with a crustaceous or 
rarely membranous or thick testa, usually compressed. Embryo curved round a 
mealy albumen. — Herbs or rarely undershrubs or almost shrubby. Leaves 
alternate or more rarely opposite, entire, often succulent. Flowers either 
solitary, terminal, leaf-opposed or in the forks of the stems, or in axillary cymes 
or clusters. 
The Older is widely dispersed over the globe, although not extending to very cold regions, 
the majority of species inhabiting sandy or rocky seacoasts or dry wastes or spreading as 
weeds of cultivation, and particularly abundant in S. Africa. Of the 8 Australian genera, 3 are 
generally .distributed over the warmer regions of the globe. 3 are especially South African, with 
a few of their numerous species dispersed over a wider range, and 2 small ones are endemic in 
Australia . — Bent It. 
Tribe I. IVlesembryese. — Caly.rtube minute to the ovary , either entirely so or produced 
above it. 
Petals numerous, linear 1 • Mesembrtanthemcm. 
Petals none t ktragonia. 
