390 
~ one hemispherical mass): ribs 8 to 13, tubereulate, with areole 2 to 2.5 
em. apart: radial spines 7 to 14 (mostly 8), Straight or curved, white, 
2 to 3 cm. long; centrals 3 or 4, elongated (5 to 8.5 em.) and angled, 
Straight or variously twisted, often flexuous, straw-colored (often red 
or brown when young), the upper divergent upwards, the lower one 
broader, porrect or a little deflected: flowers bright-purple, 7.5 to LU 
em. long: fruit ovate-subglobose, red, 3.5 to 5 em. long, with bunches 
of elongated spines, edible: seeds obliquely obovate, tuberculate, 1 to 
1.4 mm. long. (ll. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 46, 47, and 48, f. 1)—Type, 
Wright of 1851 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
Abundant between the Pecos and El Paso, Texas, extending eastward 
in the Rio Grande region, westward to the Gila, and southward into 
Coahuila and San Luis Potosi. 
Specimens examined: TEXAS (Parry of 1852; Bigelow of 1853; Lem- 
mon 804; Tiveedy of 1880; Woodward of 1889, cultivated; Trelease of 
1892): New Mexico (Wright of 1851; Hvans of 1891, near Juno): 
ARIZONA (G, BK, Vasey of 1881, Sante Catalina Mts.; Rusby 620 of 1883, 
Beaver Head; 7. 2, Wileor of 1894): COAHUILA (Palmer 368, 369, 370, 
371, 372): SAN Luis Porosr (Parry & Palmer 277; Palmer; Pringle 
3.495; Eschanzier of 1891), 
A species remarkable on account of the immense masses it forms covered with long 
flexuous straw-colored spines, Locally, it is known as *‘pitahaya” and “strawberry 
cactus,” and Dr. Havard says that the “fruit is equal or superior in quality and 
flavor to the best strawberry, the thin skin with few spines easily peeling off,” 
23. Cereus dubius Engelm. Syn. Cact. 282 (1856), 
Ovate-cylindrical, cespitose, 12.5, to 20 em. high, light-green: ribs 7 
to 9, broad and tuberculate, with distant areole: spines white and 
somewhat translucent; radials 5 to 8, terete or subangular, 12 to 30 mm, 
long, upper often wanting: centrals 1 to 4, angled, 5.5 to 7.5 em. long, 
straight or often curved: flowers pale-purple, 6 em. long and wide: 
fruit 2.5 to 3.5 em, long, green or purplish, spiny: seed obliquely globose- 
ovoid, contluent-tubereulate, 1.2 to 14mm. long. (Zi. Cact. Mex. Bound, 
t. 50)—Type, Wright 410 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
Sandy bottoms of the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, downward, 
and southward in Chihuahua, Coahuila, and San Luis Potosi. 
Specimens examined: TEXAS (Wright 410; Parry): CHtHUAHUA 
(Pringle 252): COAHUILA (Palmer of 1880): SAN Luis Poros (Parry 
& Palmer 277). 
Closely allied to stramineus, but not so cespitose, and spines all white. 
24. Cereus acifer Otto; Salm, Cact. Hort. Dyek. 189 (1850). 
Plant about 12.5 em. high and 5 em. in diameter, branching at base 
aud apex, bright-green: ribs 10, repand, with areol:e 8 mm. apart: 
spines rigid; radials 8 to 10, radiant, pale-yellowish with reddish base, 
lower longer, 10 to 20 mm. long; centrals 4, stouter, purplish-brown, 
the 3 upper erect, the lower one very stout and subdeflexed, about 3.5 
em. long.—Type unknown, unless that cultivated in Hort. Dyck. repre- 
sents it. 
