367 
Specimens examined: TEXAS ( Wright of 1849, 1851, 1852; Bigelow of 
1852; Nealley of 1891, near Rio Grande City): CHIHUAHUA (Pringle 7). 
Commonly in tufts of grass or hidden among low bushes, the long tuft of yelowish- 
white hooked central spines often difficult to distinguish from the surrounding 
bunches of dead grass. 
24. Echinocactus polyancistrus Engelm.& Bigel. ; Engelm, Syn, Cact. 272 (1856). 
Ovate or at length subeylindric, becoming 10 to 25 em, high and 7.5 
to 10 em. in diameter: ribs 13 to 17, obtuse, tuberculately interrupted: 
radial spines 20 or more, compressed and white, the uppermost want- 
ing, the 4 upper ones broader and longer (2.5 to 5 cm.) and dusky-tipped, 
the laterals shorter (2 to 2.5 em.), the lowest ones very short (1.2 cm.) 
and subsetaceous; central spines of several forms, the uppermost one 
(rarely a second similar but smaller one above or beside it) compressed- 
quadrangular, elongated (7.5 te 12.5 em.), white with dusky tip, curved 
upward, the other 5 to 10 teretish or subangled, bright purple-brown, 
upper ones longer (5 to 9 em.) and mostly straight, the others gradually 
shortening (to about 3 cm.) downward and sharply hooked: flowers red 
or yellow, 5 to 6 em. long and wide: fruit pyriform, becoming almost 
destitute of scales: seeds large and tuberculate. (//L Pacif. R. Rep. iv, 
t. 2, figs. 1, 2)—Type, Bigelow of 1854 in Herb. Mo, Bot. Gard. 
Gravelly hills and plains, from the Mohave desert region of southeast- 
ern California (headwaters of the Mohave) to the sage plains of western 
Nevada; apparently not abundant, 
Specimens examined: CALIFORNIA (Bigelow of 1854; Coville & Funs- 
ton 167, Death Valley Exped.): NEVADA (Gabb of 1867; Shockley 314). 
The measurements of plant bodies and spines are taken from the larger southern 
forms of the Mohave desert. The Nevada plants are but 7.5 to 10 em. high, with 
spines rarely more than 5 cm. long, the radials but 1 to 2.5 em. Said to resemble a 
pineapple in general size and appearance. The number of hooked spines varies from 
3 to 7 according to age and development. In the original description as given in the 
“Cactacew” of Whipple’s Expedition the flower characters are drawn from immature 
buds. Shockley’s Nevada specimens are in full flower and show the lower half of the 
ovary to be naked, a few smal! rounded fimbriate sepals above, those of the limb few, 
larger and petal-like; petals 10, about 3 cm. long, spatulate, entire, slightly mucro- 
nate-tipped. 
25. Echinocactus whipplei Engelm. & Bigel.; Engelm. Syn. Cact. 272 (1856). 
Globose-ovate, 7.5 to 12.5 em. high, 5 to 10 em. in diameter: ribs 13 to 15 
(often oblique), compressed and tuberculately interrupted : radial spines 
usually 7, compressed, straight or slightly recurved, 12 to 18 mm. long, 
lower ones shorter than the others, all white excepting the two darker 
lowest laterals; central spines 4, widely divergent, the uppermost one 
flattened, straight and white, 2.5 to 4 em. long (1 to 2.5 mm, broad at 
base), turned upward in the plane of the radials (completing the circle 
of radials), the others a little shorter (2.5 to 3 em.), quadrangular-com- 
pressed, dark-brown or black becoming reddish and finally ashy, the 2 
laterals straight, the lowest one stouter and sharply hooked downward: 
flower greenish-red, 2 to 3 cm. long: ovary with few (2 to 5) scales: seeds 
8898—No, 7-——2 
