108 
ever, is clearly M. rhodantha of Link & Otto; and although Prince Salm-Dyck 
revived the name for the present species, the law of homonyms will not permit it to 
stand. The name proposed refers to the abundant display of capillary radial spines, 
which is probably the most notable feature. 
29. Cactus palmeri, sp. nov. 
Cylindrical: tubercles crowded, glaucous, cylindrical (somewhat 
broadest above), about 4 mm. long, with dense axillary wool containing 
bristles: radial spines 25 to 30, very slender and white but rigid, 
about 5 mm. long, spreading or somewhat radiant, entangled with those 
of neighboring tubercles, and so covering the whole plant; central 
spines 3 to 5 (usually 4), more robust, erect or slightly divergent, 
brownish with darker tip, 7 to 8 mm, long: flowers small: fruit clavate 
andsecarlet: seeds black and strongly pitted, 0.5 to 0.8 mm. in diameter.— 
Type, Palmer 921 in U.S. Nat. Herb, 
San Benito Island, off the west coast of Lower California, 
Specimens examined: LOWER CALIFORNIA, San Benito Island (Palmer 
921 of 1889, reported as Mamillaria Goodrichii). 
Very closely allied to C. capillaris of eastern Mexico. 
30. Cactus stellatus Willd. Enum. Suppl. 30 (1818). 
Cactus pusillus DC, Cat. Hort. Monsp. 184 (1813), not Haw. (1803). 
Mamillaria pusilla DC. Prod. ili. 459 (1828). 
A very common West Indian species, apparently differing from the 
variety only in the very much fewer (12 to 20) radial spines, although 
numerous specimens, both dried and living, were examined for addi- 
tional characters. This difference, however, is so constant and strik- 
ing that, taken together with the wide geographical separation, it 
should stand as varietal. 
31. Cactus stellatus texanus (Engelm.). 
Mamillaria pusilla tecana Engelm. Syn, Cact. 216 (1856), 
Mawmillaria texana Young, Fl. Texas, 279 (1873). 
Ovate-globose, 2.5 to 5 em. in diameter, 2.5 to 6 em. high, proliferous 
and at length cespitose: tubercles 7 to 9 mm. long, the long axillary 
wool intermixed with several coarse twisted bristles: radial spines very 
numerous, in many series, the outer ones (30 to 50) capillary, white, 
elongated and flexuous or crisped (12 to 16 mm. long when straightened), 
the inner ones (10 to 12) more rigid, shorter (6 to 8 mm.), puberulent, 
whitish or yellowish, usually dark-tipped; central spines 5 to 8, rigid, . 
straight, pubescent, unequal, white below and reddish or dark above: 
flowers 1.5 to 2cm. long, the yellowish-white petals with reddish median 
band: fruit 1.5 to 2 em. long: seeds black and shining, conspicuously 
pitted, 1.2mm. long. (ll. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 5.)—Type, Bigelow 
specimens in Herb. Mo, Bot. Gard. 
Irom the mouth of the Rio Grande to El Paso, Tex., and southward 
into Coahuila and Chihuahua. Fl. Mareh—May. 
