DETERMINATIONS OF THE PRICKLY PEARS NOW 
WILD IN INDIA. 
By 
L //. Biirkill. 
Prickly pears are American plants of the genus Opuniia, Five of 
them are known to me as now wild in India, 
Opuntia cocliinelifera, Mill., 
Opuiitia monacantha, Haw., 
Opuntia elatior, Mill., 
Opuutia nigricaus, Haw., and 
Opuntia Dilleiiii, Haw. 
It is possible to regard Opuntia nigricans as only a variety of 
Opuntia elatior. Further, there is one columnar Cactus, — 
Cereus pterogonus, Lemaire. 
All these plants belong to the natural order Cactace*. 
Cacti are so difficult to determine properly that no paper on them 
should be published without such references as may indicate to the 
reader how the specific names have been used in it : the required 
references are given in this paper towards the end (p. 315). 
Being of a curious appearance such as to excite interest, and being 
very easily propagated fi’om the joints, and very tenacious of life. Cacti 
were early brought from America to gardens in Europe, and thence 
taken to various parts of the world, where different species have thriven 
as in India, The following are the results of this carrying about the 
world. 
Central Europe contains Opuntia nana^ Vis. (called by many 
authors 0. vulgaris) ^ which had its original home in Central America. 
The footnote below' gives a digression on the reason for discarding the 
name '' vulgaris in favour of “ nana.^*^ 
^ Miller founded Opuntia vulgaris on the figure of a plant given by Johann 
Bauhin in his Historia plantarutn universalis^ (1656), p. 154 : and this figure is a 
reduction of an older one given by Lobel in his leones^ ii, (1591), p. 241. Having 
