898 | OPUNTIACEAE 
Flower rotate: BUDE UM not prolonged: perianth of 
few sepals and petal III. RHIPSALIDEAE. 
Flower funnelform, ae etshaped, or narrowly eam- 
panulate: hypanthium much prolonged: perianth of 
numerous sepals and petals. IV. CEREEAE. 
I. SKIEAE 
Climbing or reclining plants. with broad leaves and a pair 
of reflexed spines at each areola which is devoid of 
bristles: flowers stalked. 1. PERESKIA. 
ree prostrate or with erect di liffusely branched temm with- 
ut a continuous terete ee seed glabrou 2. OPUNTIA. 
Plant with erect terete unjointed trunks: se ed pubescent. 
Trunk supporting dimonDhols branches, the lateral ones 
terete, the succeeding ones flat: hyptnthium short and 
teer corolla with narrow, loosely spreading petals: 
berry subglobose. 3. BRASILIOPUNTIA. 
Trunk supporting all flat irregularly placed branches: 
hypanthium elongate, flattened, resembling a small 
joint: corolla with broad, short, closely imbrieate 
petals: berry elongate. 4. CONSOLEA. 
RHIPSALIDEAE 
Pendent much-branched epiphyte with eae on flowers. 5. RHIPSALIS. 
IV. CER 
Stem and branches unequally a 5-angled, o ree berry 
DE scaly or spin 
ym nc rm caly and Ban the scales subtending tufts 
6. SELENICEREUS. 
 Hypanthium sealy or spiny, but not hairy 
Hypanthium scaly: berry more or ue clothed with 
broad scales: plant climbing with aerial roots. 1. HYLOCEREUS. 
FD D berry armed Hera clusters of 
pines: plant erect, diffuse, or reclin 8. ACANTHOCEREUS. 
Stem and “branches terete in outlin ie, no = less fluted . 
sealy at the base: Seu and cum iene Sud woe. 
berry with stout scale-bases and often tufts of hair. 9. HARRISIA. 
Flower narrowly campanulate: hypanthium short, naked 
at the base: pale and petals broad and short: berry 
naked and glabrou 10. CEPHALOCEREUS., 
1. PERESKIA Plum. Woody and partly succulent vines with reclining 
or clambering stems and branches with spines at the -axils. Leaves alter- 
ate: blades broad, flat, entire, short-petioled. Flowers often panicled. 
Hypanthium depressed, smooth or scaly. Sepals narrow. Corolla rotate: 
petals relatively few and broad, white or colored, broader than the sepals. 
Stamens numerous. Berry pyriform to tia obose, translucent, sometimes 
scaly —About 20 species, tropical Ameri 
1. P. Pereskia (L.) Karst. Stems and branches reclining or clambering, 
elongate, glabrous: leaf- bl ades ovate i lanceolate-elliptic, 4-9 em. long, often 
eute or abruptly pointed, coriaceous, rt- 
j ls 
white or ne rly s metimes yellowish 
or pin i poe "uu eio ee aoa l- 
1.5 em. in di ameter, smooth i : seeds 
Tr mm. -in diameter. [P. aouleata il 
LEM 
a preserve and the leaves as a pot-herb. 
