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P L A T E DXXXm.
CACTUS COCCINELLÏFER.
Cochineal Torch Thistle.
CLASS XIL ORDER L
ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. About twenty Chives. One PointaL
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX rnonophyllus, superus, imbricatus. Corolla
multiplex. Bacca monolocularis, poly
sperma.
EMPALEMENT one-leafsd, above, tiled. Blossom
of many folds. Berry of one loculament,
many-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CACTtrs prolifero-articulatus : articulis ovato-oblongiSj
sub-inermibus.
Habitat in Mexico.
Tuna cocheniliifera,—Dill. Elth. tal. 297.
CEHEUS proliferous-jointed. Joints are of an
ovate and oblong form, and nearly unarmed.
Native of Mexico.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower cut open.
3. The same shown from the outer side.
3 . A longitudinal section of the seed-bud.
4. The cochineaJ insect as retailed in the shops.
5. The same shown from the under side.
6 . A larger and darker sort.
7 . The same shown from the under side and magnified.
Caxtus cocdvellifer is a native of Mexico, where the principal culture of cochineal is situated. Under
the torrid zone, where litde or no rain falls during half the year (from the beginning of October to
about the end of March) ; as rain destroys the insects, and is injurious to the plants. The dryer the
soil is the better they succeed, as their roots are very impatient of water. Although the insects are
found naturally upon the plant in those climates, the cultivators, we are informed, always stock their
young plantations with insects of their own rearing, which are larger and finer than the wild sort, and
give a more brilliant colour. These they breed under sheds in the rainy season ; and, when the spiinti
commences, always fresh stock their plantations, scattering a few breeding insects upon each plant, and
in a few days tlie surface appears speckled over with them, each biinging about 300 at a birth.' In
two months after they begin to collect, by scraping the insects from the bark with the blunt edo-e of a
k n i f e ; nor need they any other preparation than immersion for half a minute in boiling water, which is
done by dipping them m a kind of sieve, and afterwards drying them in the sun, or by a com'mon fire
Three collections in this manner are generally made in six moutlis; fresh breeding insects being always
replaced upon the plants after gathering. Other species of Cacli also breed the insects; but this is always
preferred, as a man can gather from the coccinellifer ten pounds a day, while from the Tuna
Opuntia, and other thorny species, he could not gather two ounces. The plants are generally placeil
in lines from north to south, that both'sides may have the benefit of the sun ; and they consider them
fit to bear insects at the age of 18 months. Although it is neither a new nor a rare plant, yet as an interesting
one, and rarely seen in blossom in England, we presume it will be acceptable to our readers •
nor is there any tolerable figure of it which we have seen, unless that of Dillenius in the Hortus Klthamensis,
which is not in every body's hands. Our drawing was made iu July 1808, at the Countess da
Vandes' collection at Bayswater.
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