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Belonging to, or like, the family of plants of which the prickly pear is a common example.

A columnar cactaceous plant of the West Indies (Cereus Swartzii).

A genus of cactaceous plants having flattened, jointed stems, and petals united in a tube. The flowers are very showy, and several species are in cultivation.

damages the leaves of melon vines. -- Melon cactus, Melon thistle. (a) (Bot.) A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided into spiny longitudinal ridges, and bearing at the top a prickly and woolly crown in which the small pink flowers are half concealed.…

A cactaceous plant (Nopalea cochinellifera), originally Mexican, on which the cochineal insect feeds, and from which it is collected. The name is sometimes given to other species of Cactaceæ.

A genus of cactaceous plants; the prickly pear, or Indian fig.

A cactaceous shrub (Cereus Pitajaya) of tropical America, which yields a delicious fruit.

g the skin in hot weather. -- Prickly pear (Bot.), a name given to several plants of the cactaceous genus Opuntia, American plants consisting of fleshy, leafless, usually flattened, and often prickly joints inserted upon each other. The sessile flowers have many petals and numerous stamens. The edible fruit is a large…

A kind of sirup made by the Indians of Arizona from the fruit of some cactaceous plant (probably the Cereus giganteus).