North American Species of Cactus Part 3

long, dilated at base (corky and persistent when old), with naked axils: radial spines 15 to 30 in a single series, white, often dusky-tipped, slender but rigid, naked or p.u.b.erulent, 6 to 12 mm.

long, the shorter ones uppermost, the longer ones lateral; central spines 1 to 3, blackish from a paler base, the lower (often the only) one stouter and longer (6 to 18 mm.), hooked upward, the one or two upper ones (when present) shorter and slenderer, divergent: flowers 2 to 2.5 cm. long, rose-colored: fruit 2 to 2.5 cm. long: seeds 0.8 to 1 mm. long, black and pitted. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 6. figs. 1-8) Type, Wright of 1852 and Bigelow of 1852 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.

In rocky places, from the mountains of extreme southwestern Texas (west of the Pecos) to southern Utah, southern California (common along the Colorado), and Sonora. Fl. June-August.

Specimens examined: Texas (Wright of 1852; Newberry of 1858; G.

R. Vasey of 1881; Miller of 1881; Briggs of 1892): New Mexico (Evans of 1891): Arizona (Bigelow of 1852; Schott of 1858; Cous of 1865; Palmer of 1869, 1870; Engelmann of 1880; Pringle of 1884): Utah (Parry of 1874): Sonora (Schott of 1853): also specimens cultivated in the Mo. Bot. Gard. in 1881.

In all references to the fruit of this species it is described as "oval and green," except in Ives Report, where Dr. Engelmann describes its real character as the ordinary fruit of Eumamillaria. The immature fruit is "oval and green," but with maturity it becomes clavate and scarlet. The Utah specimens of Parry show an exceptional character in their 30 to 33 scabrous radial spines, but otherwise they are quite normal. M.

microcarpa Engelm., Emory's Rep. 156. f. 3, should be dropped as a synonym of this species, at least as to figure and description.

In all probability C.grahami is one of the forms of the Mexican C. schelhasii (Pfeiff.). Except that in C. grahami the radial spines are apt to be more numerous and longer, and the centrals much darker; and in C. schelhasii the 3 centrals seem to be always present and sometimes all hooked, the descriptions suggest no difference. In the absence of authentic specimens of the latter species, however, and with its fruit and seed entirely unknown, such a reference of C. grahami must be deferred.

20. Cactus bocasa.n.u.s (Poselger).

Mamillaria bocasana Poselger, Gart. Zeit. 94 (1853).

Depressed-globose, 2 to 3 cm. high: tubercles 8 mm. long, with long axillary wool: radial spines 25 to 30, white and capillary, 10 to 25 mm. long; central spines 2 to 4, slender and naked (or slightly p.u.b.erulent), the most central one hooked (usually upwards), 15 to 25 mm. long, the upper 1 to 3 shorter and straight, all yellow with red tips, the hooked one often brownish-red nearly to the base: flowers unknown: fruit green, about 4 mm. long: seeds cinnamon-brown, oblique, broadly obovate, with narrowly ovate basal hilum. Type unknown.

San Luis Potosi, so far as known. Poselger says, "Texas, auf der Seira de Bocas, among rocks," which station we have been unable to locate.

Specimens examined: San Luis Potosi (Eschanzier of 1891): also specimens cultivated in Hort. Pfersdorff in 1869; in Mo. Bot.

Gard. in 1891; also growing in Mo. Bot. Gard. 1893.

The capillary radials give the plant a white-woolly appearance.

The younger spines at the vertex are erect and tufted. It resembles C. grahami, but the tubercles are much more slender and not thickened at base, all the spines are more slender, the central hooked one is more reddish, and the fruit is much shorter.

21. Cactus eschanzieri, sp. nov.

Depressed-globose, 3 cm. in diameter, simple: tubercles broader at base, 6 to 8 mm. long, with naked axils: spines all p.u.b.escent; radials 15 to 20, with dusky tips, the lateral 10 to 12 mm. long, the lower weaker, shorter and curved, the upper shorter; solitary central spine reddish, slender, somewhat twisted, usually hooked upwards, 15 to 25 mm. long: flowers red (?): fruit reddish (?), ovate, about 10 mm, long: seeds reddish, oblique-obovate, 1.2 mm.

long, pitted, with subventral hilum. Type in Herb. Coulter.

San Luis Potosi.

Specimens examined: San Luis Potosi (Eschanzier of 1891).

Resembles C. grahami, but with fewer and more slender p.u.b.escent spines, longer and less rigid central, more exserted fruit, and much larger reddish and strongly pitted seeds with subventral hilum.

22. Cactus tetrancistrus (Engelm.).

Mamillaria tetrancistra Engelm. Am. Jour. Sci. II. xiv. 337 (1852), in part.

Mamillaria ph.e.l.losperma Engelm. Syn. Cact. 262 (1856).

Cactus pellospermus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 261 (1891).

Ovate or ovate-cylindrical, 5 to 25 cm. high, 3.5 to 7.5 cm. in diameter, simple or rarely branching at base: tubercles ovate-cylindrical, 8 to 14 mm. long, with axillary bristle-bearing wool, at length naked: radial spines 30 to 60, in two series, the exterior bristle-like, shorter and white, the interior stouter, longer and dusky-tipped or purplish; central spines 3 or 4, stouter, longer, brown or blackish from a paler base, the upper 2 or 3 (10 to 14 mm. long) straight, or one or two or even all hooked, the lower stouter and longer (12 to 18 mm.), hooked upwards: flowers about 2.5 cm. long: fruit 1 to 2.5 cm. long: seeds large (1.2 to 1.5 mm. in diameter), globose and wrinkled, partly immersed in a brown spongy or corky cup-shaped 3-lobed appendage. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 7) Type, Parry of 1850, but modified by Le Conte 14 and Bigelow of 1854, all in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.

Gravelly soil and sandy stream-banks, from the eastern slopes of the mountains of southern California, throughout western Arizona and southern Nevada to southern Utah; referred also to "N. W.

Mexico" by Hemsley (Biol. Centr.-Amer.).

Specimens examined: California (Parry of 1850; Newberry of 1858; Parish of 1882): Arizona (Le Conte 14; Bigelow of 1854; Dr. Loew of 1875: also Palmer of 1870, but with no locality.

In the original description this species was confounded with C.

grahami, with which it grows and which it much resembles; and this, together with the fact that 4 central hooked spines are seldom found, induced Dr. Engelmann (Syn. Cact. 262) to propose the more appropriate but untenable name M. ph.e.l.losperma. The resemblance to C. grahami is not so close as general appearance would indicate, as the more oblong or cylindrical form, longer and less crowded tubercles, more numerous spines, often more than one hooked central, large seeds, and remarkable seed appendages serve well to distinguish it.

++ Plants with fasciculate slender cylindrical stems (30 to 45 cm. high, and 2.5 to 6 cm. in diameter): Lower Californian.

23. Cactus rosea.n.u.s (Brandegee).

Mamillaria longihamata Engelm. Mss.

Mamillaria roseana Brandegee, Zoe, ii. 19 (1891).

Fasciculately branched at base, the stems 30 to 45 cm. long (sometimes pendent from rocks and as much as 200 cm. long) and 2.5 to 5 cm. in diameter, the whole plant glaucous: tubercles elongated-conical, ascending, 10 to 12 mm. long, with woolly axils: radial spines 7 to 10, straight, rigid and sharp, 9 to 15 mm. long, dark reddish when young, becoming ashy, the upper ones the longer; the solitary central much longer (20 to 30 mm.), almost black below and with reddish tip, becoming ashy with age, usually hooked downwards: flowers numerous, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, bright scarlet: fruit obovate to globose, scarlet, 6 to 9 mm. in diameter, fleshy: seeds black and pitted. Type in Herb. Calif.

Acad.

Apparently common at low elevations throughout southern Lower California, especially the eastern side.

Specimens examined: Lower California (W. M. Gabb 17 of 1867, near Loreto; Brandegee of 1889, at San Gregorio; Palmer 139 of 1890, near La Paz; Palmer 880 of 1890, on Carmen Island; Brandegee 241 of 1890, at Rancho Colorado).

One of the most showy species of Lower California. The plant has the appearance of a Coryphanth, and is remarkable for its tall and slender habit, its large central hooks, and its globose fruit. Since 1867 this species has been in Herb. Engelmann, fully characterized as above under the very appropriate specific name longihamatus.

24. Cactus setispinus, sp. nov.

Mamillaria Setispina Engelm. Mss.

Fasciculate and ascending, simple or branched at base, the stems about 30 cm. high and 3 to 6 cm. in diameter, densely covered with remarkably long stout spines: tubercles short and broadly conical, with axillary wool: spines white. with black tips; radials 10 to 12, widely spreading, very unequal, 10 to 34 mm.

long, slender and flexuous; central spines 1 to 4, more rigid and much longer (20 to 50 mm.), the upper ones straight, the lowest one longest and hooked (usually upwards) and often variously curved and twisted: fruit obovate and scarlet 30 mm. long: seeds, black and pitted. Type, Gabb 15 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.

Rocky or gravelly soil, San Julio Canyon. and in the vicinity of San Borgia, Lower California.

Specimens examined: Lower California (W. M. Gabb 15 of 1867, at San Borgia; Brandegee of 1889, from San Borgia and San Julio Canyon).

In his notes Mr. Gabb describes the flower as "large, 3 to 3.5 inches long, bell-shaped, of a beautiful purplish red color,"

concerning which Dr. Engelmann remarks "this would indicate a Coryphanth, but the tubercles show no trace of a groove, and, moreover, a withered remnant of a flower laterally attached (say 18 to 20 mm. long), so that I have no doubt that Mr. Gabb's statement is founded on some error." It is very probable that the flowers are scarlet and larger than Dr. Engelmann suggests.

The species is closely allied to C. rosea.n.u.s, but differs in its shorter tubercles and much longer spines. About a dozen stems rise in a clump, about a foot high, covering an area of 2 or 3 feet. These two species represent a very distinct Lower Californian group of cylindrical and hooked Eumamillarias. Both probably have showy scarlet flowers and may attain considerable length when growing upon rock ledges so as to become pendent.

The specimens of C. setispinus from San Julio Canyon are from younger parts and show but a single long and hooked central. The San Borgia specimens show mostly 3 or 4 centrals, the lowest one hooked and becoming remarkably long and often variously twisted and curved. However, I can discover no difference except such as may be due to age.

++ Central spines present and not hooked.

+ Central spines more than one, longer than the radials, which are numerous, white and slender (capillary or bristle-like) (rigid in C. Halei).

25. Cactus halei (Brandegee).

Mamillaria halei Brandegee, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci Scr. 2. ii.

161 (1889).

Stems cylindrical, 8 to 10 in a clump, about 30 cm. high and 5 to 7.5 cm. in diameter: tubercles short, with axillary wool: radial spines 10 to 22, rigid and erect-spreading, unequal, 6 to 15 mm.

long; central spines numerous and erect-spreading, 1 to 3 of them very stout and prominent (25 to 35 mm. long); all the spines straight, at first reddish-brown, becoming yellowish and ashy, more or less dark-tipped: flowers 2.5 cm. long, bright scarlet (almost throughout): fruit 12 mm, long, clavate and red: seeds black and pitted. (Ill. l. c. t. 6) Type in Herb. Calif. Acad.

Abundant on Magdalena and Santa Margarita Islands, western coast of Lower California. Fl. January.

Specimens examined: Lower California (Brandegee of 1889, on Magdalena Island).