^ 



136 



TH^ C ACT ACE A^. 



\ 



ovary 3 to 3.5 cm. long, with very many areoles beanng numerous glochids; style thick; stigma- 

 lobes 8 to 10, greenish white; fruit reddish, clavate, 4.5 cm. long, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds 

 small, 3 to 3.5 mm. broad. 



Type locality: Argentina, between Rio Negro and Rio Colorado. 



Distribution: Southern Argentina. 



According to Dr. Spegazzini, this species is not near to any of the known South Ameri- 

 can species, but resembles somewhat the North American species 0. microdasys and O. 

 basilaris. We know it only from the description. 



■ 



Opuntia calantha Griffiths, Bull. Torr, Club 43: 524. 1916. 



r 

 ■1 



A low, creeping, prostrate plant 15 cm. high, one meter in diameter; joints obovate, narrowed 

 above and below, inequilateral, 11 cm. long, 4 cm. broad, tuberculate-wrinkled, mostly deep green; 

 areoles i to 1.5 mm. long, obovate, at first tawny, turning gray; leaves small, subulate, cuspidate, 

 red. I mm. long; glochids yellow; spines 5 to 10, up to 5 mm. long; flowers carmine; fruit globular, 

 1.5 cm. in diameter. 



Recorded as probably of South American origin and usually distributed as Opuntia 

 microdisca, but from which it is said to differ very much. The plant is known to us only 

 from the description of cultivated specimens. 



Series 9. STRIGILES. 



The series consists of a single species, native of 

 Texas. It is a low, bushy plant with large joints bear- 

 ing many areoles, these close together, each with sev- 

 eral acicular, reddish brown spines; the fruit is small. 



131. Opuntia strigil Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 

 290. 1856. 



Suberect, 6 dm. high; joints orbicular to obovate, 10 to 12.5 cm 



long; areoles close together, prominent; spines 5 to 8, spreading, many 

 of them appressed to the joint and deflexed, red to reddish brown with 

 lighter tips, the longer ones 2.5 cm.long; glochids numerous; flowers 

 unknown; fruits small, nearly globular, 12 mm. in diameter, trun- 

 cate, red; areoles on fruit very small; seeds 3 mm. broad. 



limestone 



>s River and El Pas( 

 Distribution: Texas. 



Engelmann 



Charles Wright 



1851. 



Mexican Boundary Report that it 



Fig. 171. — Opuntia strigil. 



X0.4. 



was also collected by Wright and Bigelow, but there is no 



mention of it in his report on Bigelow's plants, nor do we find specimens in the Engelma 



herbarium, so that it would appear that this reference to Bigelow was a mistake 



Bigelow, 



it is true, crossed the River Pecos, on which the type was found, but it was well up in New 

 Mexico and not in Texas, where it was crossed by Charles Wright. It was 



somewhere 



more 



Wri 



Mex 



accompanying the specimens 



from 



1 



I - 



r- - J 



J 



- T 



■ J 



-\* 



T ' 



t . - 



-t- 



r- 



, '^y- 



4 



_"_.! 



r 



'I 



^ f 



■H f I - 





1 ^ 

 f 



3 



-^'■f 





* • - ''^'\ . f 



y w 



-:r^. 



J n 



t , t 



.'■rl^'^K^ ^^ 





* 7 



h 



'i 



1 h 



f' . 



>*■■■' 



f 





B H 



\ 



Series 10. SETISPINAE. 



Bushy or depressed species with tuberous or thickened roots, broad, flat, thin joints, and elon- 

 i, acicular brown spines which fade whitish; their fruits are large and iuicv. We recoenize 



SIX species, 



They approach the Tortispinae on the one hand and the Phaeacanthae on the other. 



Mexico 



h^' 



r 





-_ iO 



I 



