apple, which, in the inside, is divided into ten cells, each containing a black seed, surrounded by a gelatinous pulp. The West Indian damson plum has small fruit, and is chiefly found in the woods. The

milky juice of the star apple, both of the tree and the fruit, before it is ripe is remarkably astringent; but, when the fruit ripens, it is sweet and very agreeable to the taste.

MELON THISTLE, Torch thistle, Creeping cereus, INDIAN FIG, OR PRICKLY PEAR. Cactus.

The cactus is a very numerous and very singular genus of vegetables. With the exception of, perhaps, one species, the common prickly pear, which is found in the south of Europe, in Barbary*, and in some parts of North America, they are all natives of the West Indies. In the warmer parts of the American continent they are found growing upon the bare rocks, without soil, and apparently, in many instances, without humidity. The leaf-like stems are thick, succulent, generally covered with spines; and the individual masses, which are often fantastically joined together by narrow necks, have some resemblance to the fruit of the cucumber. These stems or leaves are, in all their singular varieties, perennial; and, from their succulent nature, they can live almost without water. The stems are jointed, and generally armed with bunches of sharp spines intermixed with bristles; they produce flowers on proper foot-stalks, or adhering to the stem; some of these flowers are of great beauty; and the fruit by which they are followed is, in several of the species, edible.

The small melon thistles are covered with tubercles or warts all over, and the flowers come out between them; while on the great melon thistles, which are of an oval or globular form, the spines are arranged

*See Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 266.

in rows along a kind of ribs. The torch thistles rise to a greater height, in prismatic or cylindrical stalks, with projecting ribs; and they are very much jointed and branched. The creeping cereuses are like the former, only the stems are much slenderer, and the joints much more flexible, so that they cannot support themselves, but lie along the ground, or climb up trees, in doing which they throw out roots from the stem, like ivy. The Indian figs have the portions or lobes of the stem flattened, like the sole of a shoe; they are scattered over with spines; and the flowers are produced from the extremities of the remotest branches. The Phyllanthus, or spleen-wort leaved, has the lobes flattened so as to resemble leaves indented at the edges, and without any spines, the flowers appearing nearly in the indentations; while the Barbadoes gooseberry (Cactus pereskia) has a round stalk, with leaves which are thick and flat, and come alternately from the stalk; the spines are large and stiff, and appear chiefly at the junctions of the leaves with the stem; at which places, also, the flowers make their appearance. The flowers vary in form, some being pitcher-shaped, and some elongated; and many of them are of the most brilliant colours. The fruit varies from the size of a currant to the size and shape of a fig; from which latter circumstance, and their being natives of the West Indies and the adjoining countries, they are called Indian figs. Throughout the West Indies, Mexico, and the other cultivated parts of tropical America, the larger species of the cactus are used for hedgerows, the strength of the stems, and formidable armature of the spines, rendering a hedge of them proof against animals.

The fruit of several of the species is eaten; but those which are most esteemed are the opuntia, or Indian fig; the triangularis, or strawberry-pear;

and the C. speciossissimus. The first is the prickly pear, having fruit about the size of figs, and internally of a red colour; but varying in quality with the variety and the climate in which it is produced. The strawberry-pear belongs to the creeping class; the fruit is small, but it is the finest flavoured of any, and is much relished in some of the West India islands. The C. speciossissimus has fruit twice as large as a large gooseberry, green, and exceedingly delicious.

The species denominated " Cochinellifer," is generally understood to be that which feeds the cochineal insect; but probably that insect feeds upon various sorts of cactus and other succulent plants, though its efficiency and brilliance as a dye may vary with the plant.

THE PAPAW-Carica papaya.

Though the papaw-tree is now found in the East as well as in the West, it is generally understood to be a native of America, and to have been carried to the East about the time of the first intercourse between the two continents. The papaw rises with a hollow stem to the height of about twenty feet, after which it has a head composed, not of branches, but of leaves and very long foot-stalks. The male and female flowers are on different trees: the female flowers are bell-shaped, large, generally yellow, and followed by a fleshy fruit, about the size of a small melon. The tree, and even the fruit, are full of an acrid milky juice; but the fruit is eaten with sugar and pepper, like melon; and when the half-grown fruit is properly pickled, it is but little inferior to the pickled mango of the East Indies. There are many

forms in the fruit, and some varieties in the colour of the flower of the papaw: and there is also a dwarf species; though, as this has been observed chiefly in arid situations, it may be the common sort stunted for want of moisture.

The passifloras are a very numerous race; they are mostly natives of the West Indies and the tropical parts of America, from which some of the species have been introduced into this country, chiefly on account of the beauty of their flowers. Few of the species bear fruit in this country.

The grenadillas with which we are best acquainted are those of the West India islands, the chief of which are the purple-fruited (Passiflora edulis)