438 
The hoary appearance of older joints is very characteristic, “like an old man’s 
beard.” Vasey’s excellent specimens help to a better understanding of this variety, 
which may deserve to rank as a species. The white outer radiant spines are 6 to 12 
mm. long; the inner ones whitish or reddish-yellow, becoming grayish and much 
elongated and capillary, becoming as much as 6 or 7 em. long and appearing in dense 
tufts on old joints, looking like a covering of coarse hair. 
56. Opuntia spherocarpa ngelm. Syn. Cact. 300 (1856). 
Diffuse, with orbicular strongly tuberculate joints 7.5 em. broad: 
pulvini 8 to 10 mm. apart, with short, straw-colored bristles, mostly 
unarmed (only the uppermost and marginal ones bearing spines): 
spines 1 or 2, reddish-brown, deflexed or spreading, 12 to 25 mm. long, 
often 1 to 3 shorter (4 to 8 mm.) ones added: fruit perfectly globose, 
with a small flat shallow umbilicus, scarcely spinulose, 18 mm. in diam- 
eter: seeds very irregular, with narrow but acute margin, 5 mm. long. 
(Ul. Pacif. R. Rep. iv, t. 18, f. 6,7; t. 24, f. 3)—Type, Bigelow of 1853 
in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. ; 
‘* Mountains near Albuquerque,” New Mexico. 
Specimens examined: NEw MEx1co (Bigelow of 1853). 
57. Opuntia sphzrocarpa utahensis Engelm. Trans. St. Louis Acad. ii, 199 (1863). 
Prostrate and diffuse, with orbicular-obovate thick joints 5 to 7.5 em. 
broad (younger often globose-obovate), pulvini 12 to 16 mm. apart, 
spines none or on upper pulvinus smallish or rarely one straight stout 
white one, yellow flowers 7.5 cm. broad, obovate fruit 2.5 em. long (half 
as wide), with deep umbilicus, and seeds 4 to 5 mm. long.—Type, H. 
Engelmann of 1859 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
“Utah Basin (pass west of Steptoe Valley)” is the original locality, 
and that of Hayden is not recorded. 
Specimens examined: UTAH (H. Hngelmann of 1859; Hayden of 1876): 
also cult. in Mo, Bot. Gard. 1876. 
++ ++ Joints tumid, ovate. 
58. Opuntia rutila Nutt.; Torr. & Gr. FI. i, 555 (1840). 
Opuntia erinacea Engelm. Syn. Cact. 301 (1856). 
Ascending and diffuse: joints swollen, ovate or teretish, 5 to 10 em. 
long by 2.5 to 7.5 em. broad (sometimes elongated: and almost eylin- 
drical): pulvini very crowded (4 to 6 mm. apart), with white wool, and 
at length straw-colored bristles, all armed: spines 3 to 5, slender, red- 
dish-gray, 1 to 4 em. long (1 to 3 upper shorter and erect, central one 
longer, spreading or declined, the rest defiexed, sometimes larger ones 
flattened and often twisted), 2 to 4 smaller ones added below: flowers 
rose-red or paler: fruit ovate, dry and spinulose, with a deep funnel- 
form umbilicus, 2.5 to 3 cm. long: seeds large (6 mm. broad), much 
compressed, with broad acute margins, (Ill. Pacif. R. Rep. iv, t. 13, f. 
8-11; t. 24, f. 4)—Type of 0. rutila unknown, of 0. erinacea, Bigelow of 
1854 in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
From Green River, southwestern Wyoming (the original Nuttallian 
