Meaning of nopalery | Babel Free

Definitions

A plantation of nopal (a prickly pear cactus of the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera) used as food for the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), which is raised to produce carmine dye.

historical

Equivalents

Examples

“This ſpecies [the wild cochineal] multiplies more readily, ſpreads further and faſter without any aſſiſtance; ſo that a nopalry is ſoon covered with them.”

“A collection of these trees [nopal] is called a Nopalery, and the Indians, who cultivate the cochineal, are called Nopaleros.”

“[N]opal is the vernacular name of the cactus coccinellifer, and the cochineal plantations are called nopaleries.”

“In St. Vincent's, the Reverend Lansdown Guilding, a distinguished naturalist, has established a nopalery (or cochineal nursery) in his own garden; and it is believed he has already sent specimens of the dried insect to the Society of Arts in London.”

“The Indians of the district of Sola and Zimatlan establish their nopaleries on the slope of the mountains, or in ravines, two or three leagues distant from their villages. They plant the nopals, after cutting and burning the trees which covered the ground. If they continue to clean the ground twice a year, the young plants are able to maintain the cochineal in the third year. For this purpose, the proprietor of a nopalery purchases, in the months of April or May, branches or joints of the Tuna de Castilla, laden with small cochineals (semilla) recently hatched.”

“The cochineal industry spread rapidly, plantations called nopalries arising in such diverse regions as Spain, India, Algeria, South Africa, Jamaica, and the Canary Islands.”

“This was another experimental garden started under Dr. Berry as a ‘Nopalry’ or place for the rearing of the cochineal insect on cacti, which however, became a sort of experimental garden where exotic plants were received as they arrived in the Port of Madras and were nursed and looked after until they could be despatched to the interior stations.”

CEFR level