172 
CALYC1FL0R.E. 
ORDER LXXXVI. CACTEyE. 
Calycine sepals numerous, usually indefinite, 
with the inner ones petaloid. Petals numerous, 
scarcely distinguishable from the inner sepals. 
Stamens numerous, multiserial, inserted on the 
inside of the cup formed by the union of the se- 
pals and petals: anthers oscillatory. Ovary obo- 
vate, 1-celled, many-ovuled, with the placentae 
parietal: style 1: stigmata several. Fruit a I- 
celled berry : seeds many, at first parietal, after- 
wards, having lost their attachment, nidulant in 
pulp. 
Succulent leafless plants, globular, or columnar and 
many-angled, or flattened and jointed, usually with pric- 
kles. Flowers solitary, sessile. Natives of the warmer 
regions of tropical America, delighting in hot dry exposed 
situations. For such localities they have been peculiarly 
adapted, being sparingly supplied with evaporating pores, 
and hence capable of retaining in their porous cellular 
tissue a supply of moisture enabling them to survive in 
seasons of the most protracted drought. 
I. Melocactus. 
Calycine sepals 5-6, petalokl. Petals of the 
same number, by their union at their base with 
the sepals forming a tube. Stamens pluriserial. 
Style filiform : stigma 5-ray ed. Berry smooth, 
crowned with the marescent remains of the se- 
pals and petals. 
Name from melo a melon, and cactus. 
1. Melocactus communis. Melon Thistle , or 
Turk’s -head. 
Ovate or subrotund deep green 12-20-angled, 
ribs straight, spines in fascicules fuscoid subequal. 
Echino melocactus, Sloane , II. 159. — Cactus humilis, 
