358 
uppermost most so), 2.5 to 5 em. long; the 4 centrals much stouter 
and longer (3 to 9 em.), very unequal, the uppermost one usually the 
broadest and curved upward, the lowest one usually the longest and 
decurved: flowers yellow: fruit globose, 16 to 20 mm. in diameter: 
seeds irregularly angulate and minutely tuberculate, 4 mm. long. (JIU. 
Pacif. R. Rep. iv, t. 3, figs. 4-6)—Type, Bigelow of 1854 in Herb. Mo. 
Bot. Gard. 
Stony and gravelly ground of the desert valleys in the southern part 
of the Great Basin, from southern Utah and southern Nevada through 
Arizona to southeastern California and Sonora. 
Specimens examined: Urau (Palmer of 1877; Johnson of 1877; Siler 
of 1883): ARIZONA (Palmer of 1870; Bischoff of 1871; Nealley of 1891): 
CALIFORNIA ( Bigelow of 1854; Clayton with no number or date; Wright 
of 1882; Coville &@ Funston 153, Death Valley Exped.). 
The plants are simple only when young, forming at maturity bunches of 20 to 30 
(or even more) cylindric heads. Dr. Merriam speaks of this species as “‘resembling 
loose clusters of cocoanuts,” and as commonly called ‘“nigger-head” in the desert 
region. 
2. Echinocactus polycephalus xeranthemoides, var. nov. 
Echinoeactus xeranthemoides Engelm. MSS. 
Globose and smaller (2.5 to 12.5 em. high): ribs 13, sharp and inter- 
rupted: spines about 12 (10 to 15), straight or slightly curved; radials 
smaller (about 3 cm.); the 4 centrals 3 to 5 cm. long, the lowest broad- 
est and porrect from the center of the areola.—Type, Siler of 1881 and 
1883 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
Extreme southwestern Utah and western Arizona, on the Kanab 
plateau and southward in the region of the Colorado. 
Specimens examined: UTAH (Siler of 1883, “ Kanab Mts.”): ARIZONA 
(Siler of 1881, near the Colorado “on the Kanab wash;” Rusby 619, of 
1883, at Peach Springs; Hvans of 1891, between Gila Bend and Yuma). 
Dr. Engelmann, having only the Siler specimens, regarded this as probably a new 
species, Which view extreme forms might justify. However, more material makes 
it evident that it can not be more than a variety of polycephalus. The two forms 
belong together in the desert region of the Colorado, and both have the same pro- 
fusely branching habit. The variety is much the smaller form, with usually more 
numerous spines, which are distinguished by the very prominent broad and porrect 
lower central, but there are intergrading forms which obscure this distinction. 
3. Echinocactus parryi Engelm. Syn. Cact. 276 (1856). 
Globose or depressed, becoming 20 to 30 em. high and 25 to 40 em, in 
diameter, simple: ribs 13, tuberculate-interrupted: spines stout, more 
or less compressed, white; radials 8 to 11, straight or a little curved, 
upper slenderer, lowest wanting; the 4 centrals a little stouter and 
longer (3.5 to 5 em.), lowest longest and decurved: fruit oblong. (JU. 
Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 32, figs. 6, 7)—Type probably lost. Dr. Englemann 
had but afew bunches of spines, the rest of the description being made 
up from Dr. Parry’s notes, but I have failed to find these bunches of 
spines in the Engelmann collection. 
