TACINGA. 



39 



brown, 2 cm. long or less; flowers rather small, including ovary and stamens 4 cm. long; filaments 

 numerous, long-exserted ; style much longer than the stamens; stigma-lobes 5, green; fruit small, 

 red, 1.5 cm. long. 



J 



Type locality: In Yucatan, Mexico. 

 Distribution: Yucatan. 



Dr. Griffiths states that he found this species in the Albert S. White Park. Riverside. 



Cahfornia, in 1904. 



Mexico 



name. Later 



the same as one of Schott's specimens from Yucatan, and 1 



Dr. Griffiths compares it with A^. atiberi, but its nearest relative is N 



from which it differs in its smaller and more tuberculate joints and much sm 



Illustration: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pi. 3, f. i, as Nopalea. 

 Figfure aa. shows a ioint from a olant obtained bv Dr. David GrifTith 



\ 





4. TACINGA gen. nov. 



Long, clambering or climbing cacti, more or less branched; old stems smooth, brown; branches 

 faintly ribbed, terete; young branches green, each tipped with a tuft of long wool or soft hairs; arc- 

 oles small but conspicuous, black, the margin giving off long, white, cobwebby hairs; leaves minute, 

 soon deciduous, 3 to 4 mm. long; spines sometimes present, on young joints 2 or 3, reflexed, 

 appressed, brown, 2 to 3 mm. long, not seen on old branches; glochids from the upper parts of the 

 areoles, pale yellow, numerous, caducous, falling in showers at the slightest jarring of the branch; 

 flower-buds acute; flowers usually terminal, opening in the evening or at night; ovary narrow, 

 bearing numerous areoles, the umbilicus very deep; petals few, spreading or recurved; a row of hairs 

 between the petals and the stamens; stamens and style erect, much longer than the petals; fruit 

 oblong, the upper half sterile, bearing areoles but no spines; seeds nearly globular, white, covered 

 with a bony aril. 



This genus is intermediate between 

 Opuntia and Nopalea, having the erect, 

 non-sensitive stamens of the latter, 

 and the areoles, leaves, and glochids of 

 the former. From Opuntia it differs in 

 its narrow, green, recurved petals, in 

 having one or possibly more rows of 

 hairs between the stamens and the 

 petals, in the clambering or climbing 



\'.^^^-fi--<^'^ 



habit, and its very caducous glochids. 



Only one species is known, this 

 a common and characteristic, plant of 

 the catinga* in Bahia, Brazil, whence 

 the anagramatic name. 



1- Tacinga funalis sp. nov. 



At first erect, then climbing over shrubs 

 or through trees, i to 1 2 meters long, some- 

 what branching; old stems woody, slender; 

 branches usually reddish, the areoles borne 

 on low ribs; glochids short ; flower, includ- 

 ing ovary, 7 to 8 cm. long; sepals about 10, 



short, ovate, acute, 5 to 1 5 mm. long ; petals Kig. 49.-Tacinga funalis. Showing how it cHml,s over htishes. 



about 7, green, 4 cm. loner, acute, revolute; , . , 1 * 1 .i in 

 stamens erect tonnivent not sensitive; anthers narrow, elongated; style elongated, ''^^?ji^^' 

 most slender below, a little longer than the stamens, 4.5 cm. long, cream-colored; stigma-lobes 5. 

 green; fruit 4 to 5 cm. long; seeds 3 to 4 mm. broad. 



. ,. * Catl^a or caatinga is the common Brazili^^^^ for the thorn-b^h deser^^^^^^^^ 



Albert Lofgr.n says that the name (best spelled caatinga) is of Indian ongm, meanmg cia - wood, lo.est , tmga wntte. 



clear; a forest in which one can see far. 



