270 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN, 



commonly 3 mm. long on sides but mostly about 1 cm. long on upper 

 edges, in crescentic buncb in upper portion of areolc or scattered through- 

 out its area; spines very variable in length, the longest centrals 3 to 4 cm. 

 graduating down to J cm. in length, 2 to 5 in number with 2 or 3 additional 

 delicate bristles besides, white with translucent tips and turning abruptly 

 bright reddish brownish at base, flattened, angular, twsted, often striate 

 but never annular; flowers yellow; fruit purple, obovate, with reddish 

 purple rind and darker pulp; seed flattened, angular, deeply notched and 

 having a prominent marginal thickening, 4 or 5 mm. in diameter. 



related to the 0. EiiQelmanni crouD but 



different 



old 



joints in this locality become scaly brown after the first year, 

 but this is probably due to parasitism. Plants which I have 

 grown to four years of ago arc bright yellowish green, exactly 

 like the younger growth in the natural habitat of the plant. 

 The only difference in the cultivated specimens is a greater 

 turgidity. Tlic species is commonly called '^cuija'^ but it is 

 a very different plant from the one to which this w^ord has 

 been applied as a subspccific name. 



The description is a compilation of two sets of field de- 

 scriptions made at different seasons in the same locality, 

 supplemented by additional notes from herbarium specimens. 

 The name refers to the character of the surface of the joints. 



The type is no. 8034 D. G., collected near San Luis Potosi, 

 Mexico, August, 1905. 



Opuntia linguiformis sp. nov. 



An erect, ascending, or !ialf prostrate species, commonly too weak to 

 stand erect, young growth light blue-glaucous green, older growth yellow 

 and becoming scaly, scurfy brown with age; joints very variable, linear 

 to narrowly ovate-oblong, often 1 by 8 dm., or again broadly ovate or even 

 subcircular; leaves about 6 mm. long, circular in section, cuspidate 

 pointed; areoles subcircular, 4 to 5 mm. in diameter, tawny to gray-black, 

 upper half filled with dirty yellowish-brown, unequal spicules, about 6 

 mm. long; spines yellow, commonly slightly tingf^d with red at base, 

 angular, flattened, annular, slightly twisted, 2 to G on last year's joints, 

 mostly 3 or 4, one 2.5 to 4.5 cm. long, erect or sloping downward slightly, 

 the others divergent around it and much shorter; flowers deep yellow or 

 old gold, 7 to 8 cm. in diameter, petals obovate, obcordatc, cuspidate at 

 apex, and minutely toothed on edge, filaments white, sHghtly greenish 

 below, style white, slightly tinged with green at base; stigma yellow, 

 about 9-parted, ovary obovate to pyriform, 6 to 7 cm. long, with small. 



