112 



THE CACTACEAH. 



Wilcoxia 



roots 



Tap-root spindle-shaped, fleshy, 4 to 7 cm. long, 2 cm. in diameter, this giving oflF long fibrous 



glabrous jDut the whole surface covered with minute papillae ; ribs low, indistinct, perhaps 3 to 5 '; 



.■ . ^ I to 3 cm. long, white- woolly ; spines in clusters of 6 to 8, minute, yellowish 



small 



brown, bulbose at base, i to 3 mm. long; flowers scarlet, 4 to 5 cm. long; scales on the ovary and 

 flower-tube small, linear-cuspidate, the lower ones naked or nearly so, those at the top of the tube 

 with long white wool and several brown bristles (8 to 12 mm. long) in their axils; perianth-segments 

 2 cm. long; fruit probably spineless. 



Collected by C. A. Purpus at Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, October i, 1904, and now 

 deposited in the Herbarium of the University of California (No. 160654), and in the same 

 State at Tiuamaxtita, San Ignacio, altitude 1,340 meters, May 20, 1919, by a Mexican 

 Commission which was studying the natural resources of Sinaloa (No. 8^8) 



1909 



The plant is called cardoncillo. 



■ 



17. PENIOCEREUS (Berger) Britton and Rose, Contr. ,U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 428. 



Plants low, slender, from an enormous, fleshy, turnip-shaped root; stems and branches usuallv 

 4 or 5-angled. rarely 3 or 6-angled; spines of all the areoles similar; flowers very large for the size 

 fl.>v^'r W '.1 ^i"'^^""'?;' "octurnal, white, the outer perianth-segments tinged with red; tube of 



fhe ?ovvor^;.rr '/'^^' ^Z^ ^^''' '"/^^ ^^^!' ^^ ^^" "PP^^ ^^^^^' but with clusters of spines on 

 cdibe seerui ^i """ ^he ova^y; fruit spiny, ovoid, long-pointed, bright scarlet, fleshy, and 



edible, seeds black, rugose, with a large oblique hilum. 



A monotypic genus of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. 



from the Greek, signifying thread 



greggii 



^r'/rt"' f ^fg« Engelmann in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour North. Mex. 102. 

 CereK5 /)o//ja Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 208. 1850 

 i^ereus greggti transmontanus Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 287 

 cercttj greggn ctsmontanus Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 287 

 Lereus greggn roseiflorus Kunze. Monatsschr. Kaktecnk. 20: 172 



1909 



1848. 



1856. 

 1856. 



Root often very 



1910. 



o 20 cm. long by 5^0 8 cm. in diamet;rrs;;msrdi;^^To 3 me\rs\^^^^^^ to^Tcrin dTameVr' 



stamens inner TenWh tl % "^?^^" w^ terminating in a short f unnelf orm throat, covered with 

 flexed; rilS^^^^^ spreading, or the outer ones re- 



ncl"^ir.i :,":i-A= I-l^ ^"b--^-te, 12 to'15 cm. Lg. 



Typ 



beak 



Distribution: Western Texas, southern New Mexico 

 and Arizona to Sonora, Chihuahua, and Zacatecas. 



Fig. 166. — Peniocereus greggii. 



Fig. 167. 

 Fig. 168. 



Flower of Peniocereus greggii. X 0.5 . 

 Fruit of same. X0.5. 





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