40% 
The best known of the arborescent forms. The young plants are globose for 
several years. Called “ pitahaya” by the Californians; but this name seems to be 
applied to all large columnar Cacti with edible fruit. Known by the natives as 
“suwarrow” or ‘saguaro.” The hard pericarp of the fruit bursts into three or four 
irregular valves, which spread and become recurved, and being lined with crimson 
pulp, look like red flowers. Preserves and molasses are made from the fruit. 
The specimens of Evans from Casa Grande, Arizona, were at first thought to 
represent a new species, but were finally referred to giganteus. The ribs are 15, the 
spines are dark (almost black) and unusually slender, the radials 8 or 9, and the 
centrals 4 or 5. 
68. Cereus pecten-aboriginum Engelm.; Watson, Proc. Amer, Acad, xxi, 429 
(1886). 
Erect, solitary, becoming 6 to 9 m. high and 3 dm, or more in diame- 
ter, with erect branches: ribs 10 or 11, with densely tomentose finally 
glabrate areolie: spines 8 to 12 (mostly 10), very stout, straight, ash- 
color tipped with black; radials spreading or retlexed (12 min. long 
or less); the solitary central (rarely 2 or 3) and sometimes the 2 upper- 
most radials larger (12 to 35 mm.) and erect or ascending or porrect, 
compressed or angular: flowers white, 5 to 7.5 em, long: fruit globose, 
6 to 7.5 em, in diameter, dry and densely hairy and spiny: seeds 4 mm. 
long, black and shining.—Type, the Palmer specimens in Herb, Mo- 
Bot. Gard. 
Stony mountain sides, from southwestern Chihuahua westward 
through Sonora and common throughout the Cape region of Lower 
California and adjacent islands. 
Specimens examined: CHIHUAHUA (Palmer of 1885): SONORA ( Palmer 
of 1869, 1874, and 1890): LowER CALIFORNIA (Brandegee 244): also 
cultivated in Hort. Berol. in 1886, and in Kew Gard. 
The plant was first made known to Dr. Engelmann by a specimen of the brushes 
made from the fruit, obtained by Dr. Palmer in 1869 from the Papajo Indians at 
Hermosillo in Sonora, and hence the specific name. The fruit is covered with stiff 
yellow spines and forms balls 15 em. in diameter, often many of them growing close 
together and crowding the tops of the branches. The Indians, who call the plant 
“eardon” or “hecho,” grind the seed to mix with meal, and use the bristly covering 
of the fruit asa hair-brush. Thisand pringlei are both known as ‘‘eardon,” and form 
characteristic forests in the Cape region of Lower California. The pecten-aboriginum 
is more graceful than pringlei, has sharper ribs, and the whole plant has a purplish 
tinge. 
69. Cereus pringlei Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. xx, 368 (1885). 
Erect, very stout, becoming 6 to 15 m. high, 6 to 12 dm, in diameter, 
irregularly branching above the base: ribs 13 (rarely more), with con- 
tiguous areole, which become spineless on older portions: spines on 
younger areolw terete, the radials nearly erect, more or less unequal 
(12 to 18 min.) and ash-color, the solitary central (sometimes 2 or even 
more) twice longer; on older areole about 15, dark, flattened, mostly 
wide-spreading, about 2.5 to 5.5 em. long and deciduous: flowers white, 
tinged with green or purple, 6 to 8 em. Jong: fruit globose, 5 cm. in 
diameter, densely tomentose and spiny: seeds obliquely oblong-ovate, 
black and shining, 36 mm. long.—Type, Pringle of 1584 in Herb. Gray. 
