Pereskia
(named after Nicholas F. Peiresk, senator of Aix, in Provence, who collected a considerable library and herbarium0. Barbados Gooseberry. SYN. Peirescia. ORD. Cacteoe. A genus comprising about thirteen species of stove, woody shrubs or trees, with terete, leafy branches; they are natives of tropical America and the West Indies. Flowers solitary or paniculate, terminal or lateral, sessile or pedunculate; petals broad, expanded in a rose-like manner; calyx tube equal with the ovary, and divided into leafy segments; the thread-like style bearing a many-rayed stigma. Fruit pear or egg-shaped, with a broad scar at the top, surrounded by the leafy segments of the calyx. Leaves fleshy, sessile or stalked, flat or semi-cylindrical, veined, pulvilligerous in the axils, the pulvillae armed. Pereskias are chiefly of use for affording stocks on which to graft Epiphyllums and other Cacti. P. aculeata is most extensively used, while P. Bleo is more vigorous and better adapted for tall stocks. The latter is rather a fine decorative stove plant when in flower. Cuttings strike readily in heat; they should be inserted in very sandy soil, and kept rather dry. The plants succeed in sandy loam, to which a little brick rubbish should be added.
P. aculeata (prickly).* American or Barbados Gooseberry. ft. white, rather-panicled. October. Fr. globose, with narrow sepals, edible. I. elliptic. Prickles one or two, recurved at the downy base of the petiole. Stem armed with fascicled, straight spines. H. 5ft. to 7ft. West Indies, 1696. Shrub. (B. R. 1928.0
P. Bleo (Bleo).* A. pale red (the stamens also red, but white at the base), two to four together at the tops of the branches, each on a short peduncle. October to January. l. oblong, acuminated. Prickles axillary, five or six in a fascicle. h. 8ft. to 10ft. New Grenada, 1827. Shrub. (B. M. 3478; B. R. 1473.)
P. grandiflora (large-flowered0. A synonym of P. grandifolia.
P. grandifolia (large-leaved).* A. white, somewhat panicled, solitary. August. I. oblong-lanceolate, smooth above, beset with rough dots beneath. Stem very spiny; larger spines blackish, 2in. long. h. 6ft. Brazil, 1818. Shrub. SYN. P. grandiflora. See Fig. 81, page 75.
P. Pititache (Pititache). A. White. September. l. Fleshy, lanceolate-ovate. Trunk woody, erect, very spiny; branches sub-horizontally divergent; areolae approximate, tomentose; prickles three to six, unequal, rigid. h. 3ft. Mexico, 1838. Shrub.
P. Poeppigii (Poeppig's). I. cylindrical, green. Stem low, upright, thin, cylindrical, irregular; spines white, strong, generally in threes, the central one being longest. Chili. See Fig. 82.
P. portulacaefolia (Portulaca-leaved). A. purple, solitary, terminal; petals roundish. ft. umbilicate, globose, retuse, greenish, with white flesh, and numerous black seeds. l. obovate-cuneate. Prickles solitary under the leaves, but fasciculate on the stems, blackish. h. 20ft. to 30ft. West Indies, 1820. Tree.