OPUN'TIA VULGARIS. 
COMMON OPUNTIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
CACTEiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers iu 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. 
2 feet. 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 552. 
This genus is said to have been named after the 
ancient Opuntians, a people who occupied a dis- 
trict in the Morea. 
The Opuntia vulgaris, formerly called Cactus 
not opuntia, is frequently met with in the open bor- 
ders, a place to which we are desirous it should be 
generally introduced. In our northern latitude 
there are but few plants of the natural order Cacteae, 
of which the cultivator of hardy plants can avail 
himself for ornament ; it were then unwise to neg- 
lect such as freely offer him their assistance, by 
weathering all seasons. We have cultivated the 
Opuntia vulgaris for several years in the open 
ground, and from two or three stem lobes of which 
it at first consisted, it has increased to sixty, cover- 
ing a circle of two feet diameter. We do not men- 
tion this as successful culture of the plant; it is, 
simply, proof of its growth without much care. 
In the second volume of the Horticultural Trans- 
actions is a communication from J. Braddick, Esq. 
which we think more important than our own ex- 
perience. Mr. Braddick says “The first plant that 
I turned out has lived in the open ground of this 
Class. 
ICOSANDRIA. 
