Cactus
an old and extensive genus of Linnæus, in four sections: (1) The echinomelocacts; (2 and 3) cerei of two kinds; and (4) opuntiæ. It is now broken up into a number of genera. It is still popularly used as the designation of nearly whole of the Cactaceæ, to which order, moreover, it has given its name. Cacti are sometimes called melon thistles.
Hedgehog cactus; a designation of the genus Echinocactus.
Leaf cactus; the Epiphyllum.
Melon thistle cactus; the Melocactus.
Nipple cactus; the Mammillaria.
The Hindus compare Europeans in the East to the species of cactus (opuntia dillenii), which they know best. The plant, though now seen all over India, undoubtedly came at first from a foreign and a distant country. It grows very extensively in the western and CACTI difficult to get it out again, and it is believed to impoverish the land of which it takes possession. It is of so abnormal a type that none but itself can be its pa parallel. An unpleasant feature about it is that, from whatever side you approach it, you are met in all directions by fixed bayonets.