[a. L. cactus, a. Gr. κάκτος a prickly plant found in Sicily, the Cardoon or Spanish Artichoke (Cynara Cardunculus): taken by Linnæus as the generic name of the entirely different plants now so called.]
† 1. In ancient Nat. Hist.: The Cardoon. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 130. There is a kind of thorne called cactus.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Cactus … the general acceptation of the word is, that it signifies the artichoak.
1803. Rees, Cycl., Cactus, the name of a plant described first by Theophrastus.
2. The generic name of many succulent plants remarkable for their thick fleshy stems, generally without leaves, and armed with curious clusters of spines; they have usually few branches or none, and are often of grotesque shape, with flowers of great beauty and sweetness. The Linnæan genus Cactus is now subdivided into about 20 genera, as Cereus, Echinocactus, Opuntia, etc., constituting the natural order Cactaceæ, all of which however are popularly cactuses.
1767. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man Own Gard. (1803), Index, Cactus, or Melon and Torch-thistle.
1807. G. Gregory, Dict. Arts & Sc., I. 283/3. Cactus, melon thistle … in the natural method ranking under the 13th order Succulentæ.
1814. Lunan, Hortus Jamaic., I. 413. The slender parasitical currant cactus or Indian fig.
1836. Macgillivray, Humboldt’s Trav., iv. 63. Cactuses rose here and there, from a scanty soil.
1843. Prescott, Mexico (1850), I. 13. The device of the eagle and the cactus … the arms of the modern Mexican republic.
3. attrib., as in cactus tribe, family, etc.; cactus thorn, etc.; cactus dahlia, a Mexican dahlia, so called from its cactus-like flame-colored flower.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., vi. 119. To make rag dolls and stick cactus-thorns into them,… thereby to cripple people, or turn them sick or mad.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vii. 135. In the cactus tribe, the whole plant consists of jointed leaves.
1881. Daily News, 14 Sept., 2/6. The latest importation from Mexico, the original home of the dahlias. This was the cactus dahlia, ‘Juarezii.’
1882. Garden, 19 Aug., 156/2. What a brilliant flower is that of the Cactus Dahlia.
