In the southwestern portion of the United States, from central Texas to the Pacific ocean, the cultivated fruits of temperate, and of semi-tropical climates, can be grown only by means of irrigation, or in mountainous sections, or other limited localities favorably situated with regard to moisture. This whole region, comprising about one-half the arid lands of this country, is the home of the cactus in many species. These peculiar plants, especially adapted by nature to desert regions, bear, many of them, fruits of excellent quality, some of which are destined to furnish an important article of food to the inhabitants of the territory in which they are found. The fruits of several species of opuntia have long been largely consumed by the people of Mexico, and are now occasionally sold in the markets of New Orleans and other cities of the United States. One of them, Opuntia vulgaris, has been taken from America to the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is extensively cultivated and known as the Barberry fig.

On the island of Sicily, there are said to be 10,000 acres under cultivation to this cactus for its fruit, which is largely consumed by the poorer people of that island and of Italy, forming a considerable portion of their food.

Of the 140 species of cactus native in the United States, more than two-thirds have edible fruits, some of them of superior quality. The flavor of different species has been compared to that of the gooseberry, the strawberry and the fig. Among the species worthy of mention for their fruit, are Opuntia Ficus-Indicus, which though net native is naturalized around old missions in California and New Mexico, Opuntia duicis, and the following species of cereus: giganteus, Engelmanm, Thurberi, Fendleri, triangularis, grandiflorus, stramineous, polyacanlhus and enneacanthus. Of these, Cereus giganteus is perhaps the most noteworthy, though possibly not so promising for cultivation as some of the opuntias. It is the largest species of the cactus known, growing in favorable locations fully fifty feet in height, but usually appearing from ten to twenty feet in height. Its fruit, which is pear-shaped, and two to three inches long, is somewhat like the fig in flavor, and was largely used by the Indians, both fresh and dried.

There are many more or less distinct varieties of this cactus, differing in the form, color and flavor of their fruit.

Further notes on edible cactuses may be found in the cactus number of The American Garden (Aug., 1890)