1 84 



THE CACTACOAE. 



4 to 6 (in the original description 8 to lo), somewhat spreading or appressed, i to 2 cm. long; glochids 

 few, brownish; areoles small, 1.5 cm. apart; leaves small, brownish; flowers red; fruit globular, 

 yellowish, its areoles filled with long, weak glochids; umbilicus broad, only slightly depressed. 



Mexico 



■ Distribution: 



Mexico 



them 



very near Opuntia streptacantha, and in many cases it is difficult 



pilifi 



first described it, gives no definite locality for the species; but Dr. 



La Mortola, Italy, a living plant sent by Weber which seems to be the same 



large opuntias from Tehuacan, Mexico. 



Opuntia chavena Griffiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. 

 Gard. 19: 264. pi. 23, in part. 1908) is a 



Weber, 

 examined, at 



■'^ :'.. 





near relative of 

 tinct from it. 



hyptiacantha 



Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21 



Figu 



Op 



York 



^ 



from the collection of M. vSimon, St. Ouen, 

 Paris, France, in 190 1. 



1 



204. Opuntia streptacantha Lemaire, Cact. Gen. 



Nov. Sp. 62. 1839. 



Much branched, up to 5 meters high, sometimes 

 with a trunk 45 cm. in diameter; joints obovate 

 to orbicular, 25 to 30 cm. long, dark green; areoles 

 small, rather close together for this group ; spines 

 numerous, spreading or some of them appressed, 

 white; glochids reddish brown, very short; flowers 



7 to 9 cm. broad, yellow to orange, the sepals red- 

 dish ; filaments greenish or reddish ; stigma-lobes 



8 to 1 2, green ; fruit globular, 5 cm. in diameter, dull 

 red or sometimes yellow, both within and without. 



Type locality: Not cited. 

 Distribution: Very common on the Mex- 

 ican table-lands, especially on the deserts of 



L \ 



i 



-^ - 





^■S ' X J 





f 



>. ' 



■ X 



'1 * - 



I. 





-* _ ■ F- -J 



H -, 



.h-\ 



r F 



^ 



r 1 



A 



¥ 



Luis 



f 



Fig. 225. — Opuntia streptacantha. Xo.'5, 





ii 



1 



economic opuntias in Mexico. It ha; 

 species which we have here recognized 

 Opuntia cardona Weber (Diet. Hort. 



most impor 



ri L 



many forms and seems to grade into some 



w 







dettii Weber 



names given as synonyms of the species by Weber 



Hort. Bois 895. 1898) are two 

 were never published. O. dif 

 here, but of this, so far as we know, there is no published description. Berger has distrib- 



Hort. Mortol 



must 



specimens which we are inch 

 a pachona Griffiths (Rep. Mo 



strepi 



1 9 1 o) is closely related 

 tenuispina Salm-Dyck 



name 



(Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 45- 1845) was given as a new 

 never described. 



Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pi. i ; Safford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 

 1908: pi. 9, f. 6; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. PL Ind. Bull. 102M pi. i; 116: pi. i, this last as tuna 

 cardona; Engler and PrantI, Pflanzenfam.'a^a: f. 70, this last as Opuntia pseudotuna. 



Figure 225 represents a joint of a plant received from C. Werckle in 1002 as O. cardona. 



/ 

 'f 





. -- ^^ 



J m. 



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