A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton.

  • John Barton
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    75/120 (page 63)
    I may mention the Prickly Pear, or Indian Fig%, and the Creeping Cereus t, which are common in our greenhouses. There is some- thing very marked and extraordinary in the aspect of this tribe. In many of the species the functions of the leaves and the stem are so confounded, that it is difficult to say which of these parts is present, and which wanting. In the Indian Fig it is the stem which seems want- ing,—'the thick, fleshy leaves grow ing one out of the other: the foliage of the Creeping Cereus, on the other hand, consists entirely of long trailing stems like cat’s tails. In most of the Cacti, the plant is set with prickles disposed in bunches, which enter the flesh of a person handling them imprudently, and cause inflam- mation. The flowers are generally beautiful and brilliant; not produced on stalks, but issu- ing directly from the substance of the plant, A few of the Cacti are found in the United States of North America; but most of them are natives of the West Indies and South America, where they attain to a great size, and contribute to the singular aspect of the vegetation of the tropical regions of the New World. * Cactus opuntia. *j- Cactus flageiliformis.