Order Lxxii
CACTI.
All succulent plants destitute for the most part of leaves, the place of which is supplied by fleshy stems of the most grotesque figure; some angular, and attaining the height of thirty feet, others roundish, covered with stiff spines, like the hedgehog, and not exceeding the stature of a few inches. Their flowers are in many cases large and remarkably specious, varying from pure white to rich scarlet and purple, through all the intermediate gradations of colors. The species are chiefly natives of the hottest and dryest parts of the tropics, and are cultivable with little care, in pots filled with rubbish, in a dry-stove. Their fruit is fleshy and watery, and generally insipid, but it is eaten in their native countries for the sake of its refreshing moisture and coolness. Two species of Opuntia are hardy in Great Britain. The characters of this order and the next are very similar, although their habit is so widely different. Cacti are sometimes called Nopaleæ. 1111 Cáctus W 1112 Rhípsalis Gært.