nopalery

plural nopaleries · alternative nopalry

1. historicalA 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.First known use late 18th c.

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

   [1819, [Henrietta Beaufort], “Dialogue XLV. General View of Vegetation.”, in Dialogues on Botany, for the Use of Young Persons, Explaining the Structure of Plants, and the Progress of Vegetation, London: […] [John M‘Creery] for R[owland] Hunter, successor to Mr. [Joseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 439

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

   1783, [Guillaume Thomas François] Raynal, “Of the Culture of the Cochineal”, in J[ohn] O[badiah] Justamond, transl., A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], book VI (Discovery of America. Conquest of Mexico; and Settlements of the Spaniards in that Part of the New World), page 354

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

   [1815 April, John Clennell, “The Natural, Chemical, and Commercial History of the Cochineal”, in The Tradesman; or, Commercial Magazine, volume V, number IV (New Series), London: J. W. Payne, […] (successor to the late Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, […]), →OCLC, page 270, column 2

   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.

   1827 April–June, “Scientific Intelligence. [Zoology.]”, in Robert Jameson, editor, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Exhibiting a View of the Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the Sciences and the Arts, volume III, Edinburgh: […] Adam Black, […]; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, →OCLC, page 195

   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.

   1832, “COCHINEAL”, in David Brewster, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, […], 1st American edition, volume VI, Philadelphia, Pa.: Joseph and Edward Parker, →OCLC, page 567, column 2

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

   1945, “Cochineal Cactus”, in Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, volume 46, New York, N.Y.: New York Botanical Garden, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 84, column 2