Madagascar, like most tropical countries, is not without a fair share of spiny and prickly plants. Perhaps most in evidence in the interior is the prickly pear (_Opuntia ferox_), which was universally used in old times as a thick hedge for the defence of the ancient towns and villages. With its large needle-like spines, an inch to an inch and a half long, studding its broad fleshy leaves, and capable of inflicting a wound difficult to heal, and with smaller spines covering the flowers and the fruit, it is easy to see that to a barefooted and lightly clothed people such a hedge presented a very formidable, not to say impassable, barrier. The flowers are large and handsome, yellow and red in colour, and growing at the edge of the leaves—if indeed they can be called such; the fruit, which is about as large as a pear, turns yellow when ripe and is not unpalatable, being something like an unripe gooseberry; but it is exceedingly difficult to get it peeled without being hurt by its hair-like needles. The large spines are the ordinary Malagasy pins, and are very useful for this purpose. Another very noticeable plant is the _Sòngosòngo_, a species of _Euphorbia_, with spiny stems and brilliant scarlet flowers. This is planted on the top of the low earthen banks which form the boundaries between private properties and the roads; but it is not nearly such a formidable defence as the prickly pear. A very common variety of this plant has pale yellow flowers. Another prickly plant is the Mysore thorn, or _Tsiàfakòmby_ (_lit._ “impassable by cattle”), which is largely used for fences and stockades. From its numerous hook-like thorns, it also is not a plant which can be easily passed through, when growing thickly. It has a large spike of yellow flowers. [Sidenote: STINGING PLANTS] Another plant or shrub, which grows to the size of a tree, is not prickly, but stinging. This is the _Amìana_ (_Urera radula_). The large velvety leaves sting like those of a nettle; they are, however, of beautiful and complicated outline, and I have pressed specimens taken from young plants which are as much as two feet across, and which would be admirable patterns for ornamentation. The wood is very soft and, when on fire, smoulders for a long time. The trunk, which is tall and straight, in some specimens is nearly two feet in diameter. Some five different species have been described.