PRICKLY PEAR, or INDIAN FIG (01)//Dti(t). A genus of 200 or more species of cacti, fully half of which occur in the Southwestern United States. Their fleshy. spiny or hairy stems, gen erally formed of compressed or cylindrical ar ticulations, are leafless, except upon younger shoots, which produce small, cylindrical, early, deciduous leaves. The flowers which spring from among the clusters of pickles. or from the margin or summit of the articulations, are soli tary, or corymbose-panieulate, generally yellow, rarely white or red. The fruit, which resembles a fig or pear. with clusters of pickles on the skin, is mucilaginous, and generally eatable. Some species are used for hedge-plants in warm countries. The common prickly pear or Indian fig (Opuntia rulyaris), a low-growing native of the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts southward, is naturalized in many and other warm countries. It grows well on rocks, and spreads over expanses of volcanic sand and ashes too arid for almost any other plant. Its yellow or purple tinged oval fruit, somewhat larger than a hen's egg, has a pleasant acid flavor. but is inferior to that of Opuntia fleas indicu (supposed by some authors to be a form of Opuntia Tuna), of which there are many distinct varieties. It is extensively used in many
countries as an article of food. The dwarf prickly pear, a variety of Opuntia rulgaris, very similar, but smaller, and having prostrate stems, is naturalized in Europe as far north as the sunny slopes of the Tyrol. The tuna (Opuntia Tuna), much used in some parts of the West ladies as a hedge-plant, and also valuable as a food of the cochineal insect, has red flowers with long irritable stamens and an edible fruit. Opun tia Engelmanni (see Plate of CACTI) is one of the larger flat-jointed species common from Texas westward. From Texas to California and in Mexico are many species with cylindrical stems and upright habit of growth. some attaining a height of 10 feet or more. Some of the thick, fleshy, flat-jointed species are eaten by stock in spite of their spines. Sometimes the spines are singed off to make the plants less difficult to eat. Spineless varieties are grown for the especial use of stock. In the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and elsewhere the species introduced for stock food have become a serious pest.