1914] Collins,— Opuntia vulgaris on Cape Cod 103 
found a small Opuntia (doubtless O. vulgaris) growing at the head of a 
sand beach near Osterville, in the township of Barnstable, on the 
south side of Cape Cod. According to my recollection, there was no 
single large colony, but small plants grew scatteringly along the beach; 
whether or not it was widely distributed along the coast, I cannot say." 
With a view of ascertaining whether the plant persisted, I wrote to 
Mrs. Margaret M. Theodore of Centreville, who is familiar with the 
flora of that region, and she writes, “I have looked through Mrs. 
Cheney's ‘Plants from Cape Cod’ hoping to be able to locate your 
Prickly Pear exaetly in it, as she made exhaustive examinations of 
this region, but do not find it in the list. Then comes my young 
naturalist, my boy John, to the rescue.— ‘Sure I know where to find 
it. There's two or three lots of it around here,’ and he describes it 
accurately." Osterville and Centerville are settlements in the town 
of Barnstable, about a mile apart. 
Mr. W. P. Rich tells me that it grows in Truro, on the grounds of 
Mr. Solomon Ryder, who has lived there for over 40 years, and who 
reports that it was there when he came. It now extends from the 
house over the lawn, into fields and under trees in every direction. 
In 1911 Mr. Rich transplanted a number of these plants from Mr. 
Ryder's place to a barren “sand lot" near the shore by his summer 
home at Truro; they thrived and are spreading, and flowered freely 
in 1912 and 1913. 
'The Truro station is the northernmost; from there to Wellfleet is 
five miles, from Wellfleet to Barnstable 25 miles. It seems now safe 
to consider Opuntia vulgaris as fairly established on the Cape; as to 
whether it is native may not be as clear. Mr. Rich is of the opinion 
that the plant was introduced at the Ryder station; the Lawrence 
station at Wellfleet, though it has a record of at least 75 years, appears 
to have an old farm house as its center of distribution. The Barn- 
stable localities more resemble the Coatue station at Nantucket, 
which has always been considered as free from suspicion of human 
agency. It is not uncommon in gardens at Nantucket, transplanted 
from Coatue, and it may well be that old time captains from Truro 
and Wellfleet brought it to their gardens in thesame way. Its present 
distribution seems to be much the same as that of other species which 
inhabit the coastal plain. It is common along the coast of New Jersey; 
five stations are recorded for Long Island, New York.! In Connecti- 
1 Smith Ely Jelliffe, The Flora of Long Island, 1899, p. 118. 
