300 
DETERMINATIONS OF THE 
Asiatic Register and elsewhere, as one which the wild cochineal would 
eat, cannot be identified. 
From the above remarks it may be concluded that of the five Opuntias 
now wild in India — 
Opiiutia cocliiiielifera was introduced by Anderson from Kew 
who communicated it to Roxburgh ; 
Opuntia lllOliacantha was in India long before Roxburgh's time : 
Opiiiltia elatior was probably introduced by Anderson who sent 
it to Roxburgh ; \ 
Opuntia nigricans cannot be recognised among the species known 
to Roxburgh and Anderson : 
Opuntia Dilleijiii probably was the Cactus Tuna " of ^yhich 
Anderson gave a specimen to Rdttler. Even if it were not, there is, 
however, evidence to follow that Opuntia Billenii was in southern 
India before either of these two men lived in it. 
It has been said that Opuntia monacantha must have been introduced 
long before Roxburgh's time ; the evidence for this statement lies in the 
already wide distribution that Roxburgh records for it. Again it has 
been recorded (p. 290) that Loureiro [Flora CocltincJdnensiSy 1790, p. 306) 
saw an Opuntia, presumedly this one, in Bengal and other places in 
India ; he called it Cactus Ficus-iudica. Bucbanan-Hamilton, a 
contemporary of Roxburgh's, left behind him tw’o drawings of Opuntia 
monacantha ; the sheet whereon is the one, is labelled Cactus 
cochineliferus, Lin. drawm by in 1309 " and the sheet 
whereon is the other, is labelled Cactus coccinelifer : Lin. Sp. pi." 
The second figure shows the plant thornless, and the red bracts which 
subtend the clusters of glochidia and thorns are carelessly put in ; but 
nevertheless it is an undoubted figure of Opuntia monacantha. It is 
not stated by Buchanan- Hamilton where it grew, but he was surveying 
in the district of Rangpur in the early part of 1809, and in the district 
of Purneah in the end of that year. He recorded that in the district of 
Dinajpur were hedges of Opuntia (Montgomery Martin, History y 
AniiquitieSy and Statistics o/ Fasteru India, ii, 1338, p. 902). 
Immediately after the reception of the wild cochineal in Calcutta 
one nopalry ^ at any rate was planted in Bengal : Sir George Watt 
[Commercial Frodurts of India, 1908, p. Sd?) has called attention to a 
plantation of 50 bighas having been prepared at Rishra near Calcutta, 
7 Nopalry — a plantation of Nopal, i.e., Opuntia for raising cochineal. 
