PRICKLY-PEAR, s. The popular name, in both E. and W. Indies, of the Opuntia Dillenii, Haworth (Cactus Indica, Roxb.), a plant spread all over India, and to which Roxburgh gave the latter name, apparently in the belief of its being indigenous in that country. Undoubtedly, however, it came from America, wide as has been its spread over Southern Europe and Asia. On some parts of the Mediterranean shores (e.g. in Sicily) it has become so characteristic that it is hard to realize the fact that the plant had no existence there before the 16th century. Indeed at Palermo we have heard this scouted, and evidence quoted in the supposed circumstance that among the mosaics of the splendid Duomo of Monreale (12th century) the fig-leaf garments of Adam and Eve are represented as of this uncompromising material. The mosaic was examined by one of the present writers, with the impression that the belief has no good foundation. [See 8th ser. Notes and Queries, viii. 254.] The cactus fruit, yellow, purple, and red, which may be said to form an important article of diet in the Mediterranean, and which is now sometimes seen in London shops, is not, as far as we know, anywhere used in India, except in times of famine. No cactus is named in Drury's Useful Plants of India. And whether the Mediterranean plants form a different species, or varieties merely, as compared with the Indian Opuntia, is a matter for inquiry. The fruit of the Indian plant is smaller and less succulent. There is a good description of the plant and fruit in Oviedo, with a good cut (see Ramusio's Ital. version, bk. viii. ch. xxv.). That author gives an amusing story of his first making acquaintance with the fruit in S. Domingo, in the year 1515.
Some of the names by which the Opuntia is known in the Punjab seem to belong properly to species of Euphorbia. Thus the Euphorbia Royleana, Bois., is called tsūī, chū, &c.; and the Opuntia is called Kābulī tsūī, Gangi sho, Kanghi chū, &c. Gangi chū is also the name of an Euphorbia sp. which Dr. Stewart takes to be the E. Neriifolia, L. (Punjab Plants, pp. 101 and 194-5). [The common name in Upper India for the prickly pear is nāgphanī, 'snake-hood,' from its shape.] This is curious; for although certain cactuses are very like certain Euphorbias, there is no Euphorbia resembling the Opuntia in form.
The Zaḳūm mentioned in the Āīn (Gladwin, 1800, ii. 68; [Jarrett, ii. 239; Sidi Ali, ed. Vambery, p. 31] as used for hedges in Guzerat, is doubtless Euphorbia also. The Opuntia is very common as a hedge plant in cantonments, &c., and it was much used by Tippoo as an obstruction round his fortifications. Both the E. Royleana and the Opuntia are used for fences in parts of the Punjab. The latter is objectionable, from harbouring dirt and reptiles; but it spreads rapidly both from birds eating the fruit, and from the facility with which the joints take root.
1685.—"The Prickly-Pear, Bush, or Shrub, of about 4 or 5 foot high ... the Fruit at first is green, like the Leaf.... It is very pleasant in taste, cooling and refreshing; but if a Man eats 15 or 20 of them they will colour his water, making it look like Blood."—Dampier, i. 223 (in W. Indies).
1764.—
"On this lay cuttings of the prickly pear;
They soon a formidable fence will shoot."
Grainger, Bk. i.
[1829.—"The castle of Bunai ... is covered with the cactus, or prickly pear, so abundant on the east side of the Aravali."—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 826.]
1861.—"The use of the prickly pear" (for hedges) "I strongly deprecate; although impenetrable and inexpensive, it conveys an idea of sterility, and is rapidly becoming a nuisance in this country."—Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens, 285.