OPUNTIA. 



105 



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6 mm. long; spines (if present) solitary or 2 to 4, brownish red or gray, 2 to 4 cm. long; flowers yellow, 

 6 cm. broad; petals obovate ; fruit red, juicy but insipid, obovoid to clavate, 22 to 35 mm. long, 15 mm. 

 in diameter at thickest part, bearing few areoles and no spines; umbilicus slightly depressed in the 

 center; seeds i to 8, about 4 mm. broad. 



Type locality: Apalachicola, Florida, 



Distribution: Sandy soil from northern Florida to Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. 



In February 191 6, Dr. J. K. Small visited the coastal islands near Charleston, South 

 Carolina, for the purpose of collecting Gibbes's Opuntia frustulenta. He found this species 

 very common on Folly Island and on the Isle of Palms, where it grows abundantly in the 

 sand, and also very variable as to shape and size of joints. He says the joints break off 

 easily and attach themselves to one 's clothing hke the sand spur, making progress over these 

 islands difficult and painful. It is the common belief that this species rarely flowers. It 

 usually flowers when first brought into 

 cultivation, but rarely afterward, this 

 doubtless being due to unsuitable green- 

 house conditions. 



The fruit described was collected by 

 Dr. J. K. Small, December 10, 1917, at 

 Apalachicola, Florida, the type locahty. 



According to Professor ly. R. Gibbes, 

 it is known as dildoes about Charleston. 



Illustration : Maund, Botanist 5 : 

 pi. 246. 



Plate XVII, figure 6, represents 

 flowering joints of a plant sent from La 

 Mortola, Italy, to the New York Botani- 

 cal Garden in 191 2; plate xviii, figure i. 





shows the plant collected by Dr. Small 

 on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, in 

 1916. 



Herbarium specimens apparently 

 representing a related species, were 

 collected by W. L. McAtee at Cameron, 

 lyouisiana, in 1910 (No. 1955)- 



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untia 



11: 152. 



— Opunt 



1911. 



Low, diffusely much branched, pale green, about .dm. high 7^, '^^^ Vott^S'scSy 



rattStSfcm*iSi?.!-e&^^^^^^^^^ 



green 



triangular-ovate, 5 to 15 mm. long, the outer green 



In sandy soil near the coast, Biloxi, Mississippi. 



Mississippi 



from 



rtograTh ofiithrplant coUected by S. M. Tracy at Biloxi, 



pusilla 



1812. 



Cactus pusillus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803. 

 Cactus foliosus Willdenow, Enum. PI. Suppl. 35- i»'3- 

 Opuntia foliosa Salm-Dyck in De Candolle. I rodr. 3- 47 1- 



1828. 



upunnajonosa c,a,m-x.>cK u. x.c ... . - - ■ sometimes nearly terete, hardly 



I.OW, usually prostrate; joints narrow, more or l^^^fl^t^^^f;^'^^^^^^^^^ areoles'remote ; spines 

 tuberculate, light green in color; leaves 6 mm. long, hnear, eany ueciu 



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