OPUNTIA. 



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77a. Opuntia depauperata sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 216.) 



78. Opuntia pubescens Wendland* in Pfeiffer, Knum. Cact. 149. 1837. 



Opuntia leptarthra Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus, Hist. Nat. Paris lo: 393. 1904. 



Plants small, usually low, sometimes 4 dm. high, much branched; joints easily becoming de- 

 tached, nearly terete, glabrous or pubescent, 3 to 7 cm. long; spines numerous, short, brownish; 

 flowers lemon-yellow but drying red; filaments greenish; style white; stigma-lobes cream-colored; 

 fruit small, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, red, a little spiny, with a depressed umbihcus; seeds small, 3 mm. in 

 diameter. 



Type locality: In Mexico. 



Distribution: Northern Mexico to Gua- 

 temala. 



This species was sent to the Kxposition 

 Universelle at Paris by the Mexican Govern- 

 ment in 1889, and was there seen and de- 

 scribed by Dr. Weber as O, leptarthra. A part 

 of this material finally went to the Hanbury 

 Garden at La Mortola, Italy, whence we 

 obtained specimens in 1913 which prove to 

 be identical with specimens obtained by Dr, 

 Rose and others in Mexico and Guatemala in 

 1905 to 1909. 



This is an insignificant species and hence 

 has generally been overlooked in the region 



many more 



from 



Tamaulip 



Mexico 



Fig. 123. 

 Fig. 124. 



■Opuntia pumila. X0.4. 

 Opuntia pubescens. X0.75. 



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mala, a much greater range than that of most ■ , 



species. Its wide distribution is doubtless due to the fact that the joints, which are cov- 

 ered with barbed spines and are easily detached, fasten themselves to various animals 

 and are scattered Hke burs over the country ; each Httle joint thus set free starts a new 

 center of distribution. 



This is a difficult plant to grow in greenhouses, for the spreading or hanging t 

 soon become entangled with other plants and break off in attempts to free or mov 

 partly for this reason, doubtless, it rarely flowers in cultivation. " . . 



Opuntia angusta Meinshausen (Wochenschr. Gartn. Pflanz. i: 30. 1858) 

 to Schumann. It was originally described as similar to the South Am( 

 0. aurantiaca, and. if so. it must be near 0. mhescens, if not identical with it. 



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Mexico, where it was first collected by Karwinsky 



Figure 124 represents joints of 



Guatemalan plant, cultivated in the green- 



79. Opuntia pascoensis sp. nov. 



Department of Agriculture, Washingt 



obtained in 1907 



stems erect and rigid, up to 3 dm. high ; joints easily breaking apart, erect or ascending, terete 

 or slightly flattened, 3 to 12 cm. long, 1.5 to 4 cm. broad, puberulent, hardly tuberculate but with 

 faint upturned lunate depressions between the dark-blotched areoles; leaves minute; areoles some- 

 what elevated, fillprl with hrnwn wool intermixed with longer white cobwebby hairs; spines 4 to » 



2 cm. long or less ; glochids numerous, short, 

 diameter, naked below, spiny above. Doubt- 



yellow, tardily developing; fruit globular, 1.5 cm. in diameter, naked below, sp my ao";*=- ^-^^^^ 

 less of wide distribution, fir the joints are easily detached and are distributed like burs, but so far 

 only two collections have been reported. 



•PWffer (Enum. Cact, ,837) frequently refer, -veral of Wendlanjs species .0 .^for aU't 



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