it also as extremely doubtful, that the plant called by Linneus cactus coccinellifer, cultivated in Europe, is the nopal on which the Indians of Oaxaca rear the mealy cochineal. M. Decandolle* who has thrown much light on this subject, appears to be of my opinion; for he cites the wild nopal of Thiery de Menouville, as synonimous with the cochineal Indian fig, which is entirely different from that of the plantations. In fact Linneus gave the name of cactus coccinellifer to the Indian fig, with which several botanical gardens of Europe had received the cotton-cochineal, a species with a purple flower, (Ficus Indica vermiculos proferens of Plukenet) which grows wild in Jamaica, the Island of Cuba, and almost every where in the Spanish Colonies of the Continent. I have shewn this cactus to well informed persons, who had carefully examined the nopaleries of Oaxaca, and they have uniformly told me that the nopal of the plantations is essentially different from it, and that the latter, as is also affirmed by M. Thiery, is never to be found in a wild state. Moreover the Abbe Clavigero who lived five years in Misteca, expressly says, that the fruit of the nopal on which the fine cochineal is reared, is small, insipid, and white, while the fruit of the cactus

24.

* Plantes grasses de M.M. Redouté et Decandolle, livraison

†T.i. p. 115.

coccinellifer is red. The celebrated Ulloa advances in his works that the true nopal is without prickles; but he appears to have confounded this plant with an Indian fig, which we have frequently found in the gardens, (conucos) of the Indians of Mexico and Peru, and which the creoles on account of its gigantic size, the excellence of its fruits, and the beauty of its articulations, which are of a blueish green, and destitute of prickles, designate by the name of tuna de Castilla. This nopal, the most elegant of all the opuntia, is in fact fit for the nourishment of the mealy cochineal, especially after its birth, but it is seldom to be found in the nopaleries of Oaxaca. If according to the opinion of several distinguished naturalists, the tuna or nopal de Castilla, is but a variety of the ordinary cactus opuntia, originating in cultivation, we must be surprized that the Indian figs cultivated for centuries in our botanical gardens, and those of the nopaleries of New Spain, have never in the same manner lost the prickles, with which the joints are provided.

The Indians of the intendancy of Oaxaca, do not all follow the same method in rearing the cochineal, which M. Thiery de Menonville saw practised in his rapid passage through San Juan del Re, San Antonio and Quicatlan. The

Indians of the district of Sola and Zimatlan*, establish their nopaleries on the slope of mountains, or in ravins, two or three leagues distant from their villages. They plant the nopals after cutting and burning the trees which covered the ground. If they continue to clean the ground twice a year, the young plants are in a condition to maintain the cochineal in

the third year. For this purpose the proprietor of a nopalery, purchases in the months of April or May, branches or joints of the tuna de Castilla, laden with small cochineals, (semilla) recently hatched. These branches destitute of roots, and separated from the trunks, preserve their juice for several months. They are sold for about three francs the hundred in the market of Oaxaca. The Indians preserve the semilla of the cochineal for twenty days in caverns, or in the interior of their huts, and after this period they expose the young coccus to the open air. The branches to which the insect is attached, are suspended under a shed covered with a straw roof. The growth of the cochineal is so rapid, that even in the months of August and September, we find mothers already big before the young are yet hatched. These mother-cochineals are placed in nests, made of a species of tillandsia, called paxtle. They are carried in these nests two or

* Informe de Don Francisco Ibañez de Corvera. (M.$)

three leagues from the village, and distributed in the nopaleries, where the young plants receive the semilla. The laying of the mother-cochineal lasts from thirteen to fifteen days. If the situation of the plantation is not very elevated, the first harvest may be expected in less than four months. It is observed, that in a climate more cold than temperate, the colour of the cochineal is equally beautiful, but that the harvest is much later. In the plain, the mother-cochineals grow to a greater size, but they meet with more enemies in the innumerable quantity of insects, (xicaritas, perritos, • aradores, agujas, armadillos, culebritas,) lizards, rats, and birds, by which they are devoured. Much care is necessary in cleaning the branches of the nopals. The Indian women make use of a squirrel, or stag's tail for that purpose; they squat down for hours together beside one plant; and notwithstanding the excessive price of the cochineal, it is to be doubted if this cultivation would be profitable, in countries where the time and labour of man might be turned to account. At Sola, where very cold rains occasionally fall, and where it even frequently freezes in the month of January, the natives preserve the young cochineals, by covering the nopals with rush mats. The price of the semilla of grana fina, which generally does not amount to more than five francs per pound, frequently rises there to 18 and 20.

In several districts of the province of Oaxaca, they have three cochineal harvests in the year, of which the first (that which gives the semilla) is not lucrative, because the mother preserves for a very short time the colouring juice, if she dies naturally after having laid. This first harvest furnishes the grana de pastle or nest cochineal, so called because the mothers after laying are found in the same nests which have been suspended to the nopals. Near the town of Oaxaca, the cochineal is sown in the month of August; but in the districts of Chontale this operation does not take place till the month of October; and on the coldest table lands not even till the months of November and December.

The cotton or wild cochineal which gets into the nopaleries, and the male of which according to the observation of Mr. Alzate, is not much smaller than the male of the mealy or fine cochineal, does much injury to the nopals; and accordingly the Indians kill it wherever they find it, though the colour which it yields is very solid and very beautiful. It appears that not only the fruits, but also the green branches of several species of cactus will dye cotton, violet and red, and that the colour of the cochineal is not entirely owing to a process of animalization of the vegetable juices in the body of the insect.

They reckon at Nexapa that in good years