764
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
prodigal luxuriance. Gladioli have a brief period of gaudy predominance.-Fragrant white Amaryllidaceæ are there, and the dainty-flowered Romulea. Hidden among the rocks grows the little native Jack-in-the-pulpit. The common brake, Polypodium, and Davallia
Cochineal Culture. Old plants of Opuntia ficus-indica with the "ripe" insects surrounded by a white, cottony, protective excretion.
are here as everywhere among the rocks, and more rarely the sweet-scented fern and a species of Notholæna peep from the chinks of the crags. Gray clumps of the giant Canary Euphorhia rise sometimes to a height of twenty feet, and among the great columnar branches twine coils of spiny Rubia. There are several woody species of