OPUNTIA. 



91 



60. Opuntia aoracantha Lemaire, Cact. Aliq. Nov. 34. 1838. 



Cereus ovatus Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 102. 1837. Not Opuntia ovala Pfeiffcr, 1. c. 144. 1837. 

 Opuntia formidahilis Walton, Cact. Journ. i: 105. 1898. 



Usually low, cespitose, forming clumps 2 to 5 dm. in diameter and sometimes i to 2 dm. high ; 

 branches grayish, either erect or prostrate, made up of 5 to 10, perhaps even more, globular joints; 

 joints easily detached, freely rooting and starting new colonies, 5 to 8 cm. in diameter, strongly tubcr- 

 culate especially when young, the lower part spineless, the upper areoles large, spine-bearing; spines 

 brown or blackish, i to 7, the longer ones 13 cm. long, straight, a little flattened, roughish to the 

 touch; flowers white; fruit short-oblong, 3 cm. long, red, weakly tuberculate, bearing numerous 

 areoles, usually naked but sometimes bearing a few short spines near the top, becoming dry; umbili- 

 cus of fruit broad and depressed; seeds white, flattened, 4 to 5 mm. broad, the margins thick and 

 corky. 





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Fig. 105. — Opuntia aoracantha. Xo.66. 



Type locality: Not cited, but doubtless from Mendoza. 



Distribution: Western provinces of Argentina, from Mendoza to Jujuy. 



Opuntia gilliesii Pfeiffer (Enum. Cact. 102. 1837, as synonym) and Tephrocactus 



Lemaire 



^ ^^...^..v, ^^^.. ^^. 1868) are usually given as synonyms of this species, but 



the7 werl not^de^^^^ the places usually cited, and as here given. Opuntia acra- 



843) is a typographical error. 



la Walpers (Repert. Bot. 2: 354. i»43; is a typugictpiucai cn^x. . 



0. aoraca;^^/za, although described nearly 80 years ago, is practically unknown m col- 



very 



The fruit has heretofore been unknown. 



dry, rocky hills west of Mendoza 



