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Updated: June 18, 2025
Flowers at the extremities of the branches, 1½ in. long, composed of numerous imbricating, scale-like petals, curving inwards, and coloured crimson. Fruit flat-topped, 2 in. long, red; pulp reddish; seeds black. It is a native of tropical South America, whence it was introduced in 1688. It requires stove treatment, and blossoms in August.
The scale-like feathers of the breast are margined with rich metallic blue-green, which colour entirely covers the throat and sides of the neck, as well as the long pointed plumes which spring from the sides of the breast, and extend nearly as far as the end of the wings.
Occasionally, as in violet, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf; it is then termed axillary. Generally, however, the flower-bearing portion of the plant is sharply distinguished from the foliage leaf-bearing or vegetative portion, and forms a more or less elaborate branch-system in which the bracts are small and scale-like.
Coming to the actual colouring the changeful tints that glow with such intensity on the scale-like feathers, it is curious to find that Gould seems to have thought that all difficulties here had been successfully overcome.
The head and neck and upper part of the back were emerald green, with the metallic glitter usually seen in the burnished scale-like feathers of these small birds; the lower half of the back was velvet-black; the tail and tail-coverts white as snow.
"Look at this piece of stone," I said, and I held the under part upward so that the light fell upon two or three scale-like grains and a few fine yellowish-green threads which ran through it. "It's an ancient mine, and this is gold." "Right!" cried Denham excitedly. "Then that old place back there with the chimney is the old smelting-furnace."
Flowers solitary, except in the Pereskia, and borne on the top or side of the stem; they are composed of numerous parts or segments; the sepals and petals are not easily distinguished from each other; the calyx tube is joined to, or combined, with the ovary, and is often covered with scale-like sepals and hairs or spines; the calyx is sometimes partly united so as to form a tube, and the petals are spread in regular whorls, except in the Epiphyllum.
On many of the stems we find upon their surface, or angles, small tubercles, which, when young, bear tiny scale-like leaves. These, however, soon wither and fall off, so that, to all appearance, leaves are never present on these plants. The term "succulent" is applied to Cactuses because of the large proportion of cellular tissue, i.e., flesh, of their stems, as compared with the woody portion.
The place was, however, famous for peacocks, and my boy soon shot several of these magnificent birds, whose flesh we found to be tender, white, and delicate, and similar to that of a turkey. The Java peacock is a different species from that of India, the neck being covered with scale-like green feathers, and the crest of a different form; but the eyed train is equally large and equally beautiful.
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