CACTUS

(=prickly plant), green; succulent, mostly leafle spiny plants, globular, columnar, flattened, or often grotesquely shaped stems, se ile, usually large and showy, natives exclusively of tropical America; formerly cla ed into one genus, now subdivided into about 18 comprising about 1,000 species. most commonly cultivated in green are Cereus, Opuntia, Phyllo cactus, Mammilaria. The fruit of Opuntia ficus the prickly pear or Indian fig, eaten in America and S. Europe, and fleshy stems of Me loc act us and others eaten by cattle in dry districts of S. Some species (eg. Cereus) ata height of 50 ft,