ECHINOCACTUS. 



171 



A few years ago the governor of Tamaulipas sent a large plant to the City of Mexico, 

 of which we have a photograph. This plant was 3 meters high, 1 .3 meters in diameter, and 

 weighed 2,000 kilograms. 



Illustrations: Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 54, as Echinocacius ingens; Illustr. Lon- 

 don News 9: 245. 1846, as monster cactus; (?) Schelle, Handb. Kakteenk. 149. f. 76; Garten- 

 welt 7: 277; De Laet, Cat. Gen. f. 9, as Echinocacius ingens visnaga; Curtis's Bot. Mag. 77: 

 pi. 4559; Fl. Serr. 6: pi. 616; Amer. Garden 11: 461 ; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 1: 501. f. 694; 

 Jard. Fleur. 2: pi. 123; Watson, Cact. Cult. 125. f. 48; ed. 3. 47. f. 20. 



Figure 187 is a reproduction of the plate in Curtis's Botanical Magazine above cited. 



4. Echinocactus grandis Rose, Contr. U. S - 



Nat. Herb. 10: 126. 1906. 



Simple, large, cylindric, 1 to 2 meters high, 

 6 to 10 dm. in diameter, dull green and, when 

 young, with broad horizontal bands, very woolly 

 at the crown; ribs on young plants as few as 8, 

 broad, high, and more or less undulate, but in 

 old plants very numerous and rather thin; 

 areoles remote on young plants, confluent in old 

 flowering plants; spines stout, subulate, dis- 

 tinctly banded, especially the stouter ones, at 

 first yellowish but soon reddish brown; radial 

 spines usually 5 or 6, 3 to 4 cm. long, central 

 spine solitary, 4 to 5 cm. long, straight; flowers 

 numerous, yellow, 4 to 5 cm. long; scales on the 

 ovary linear, their axils bearing an abundance of 

 wool covering the ovary with a dense felty 

 mass; upper scales narrow, rigid, more or less 

 spiny-tipped; outer perianth-segments ovate, 

 long-apiculate, with ciliate margins; inner seg- 

 ments oblong, obtuse, retuse or apiculate, ser- 

 rulate ; fruit hidden in a mass of soft white wool, 

 oblong, 4 to 5 cm. long; seeds black, shining, 2.5 

 cm. long. 



Type locality: Hills near Tehuaean, 

 Puebla, Mexico. 



Distribution : Limestone hills of Puebla, 

 Mexico. 



This is one of the very large species of 

 Echinocactus and is very characteristic of 

 the deserts of Puebla where it is often the 

 most conspicuous plant of the landscape. 

 The juvenile plants appear very different 

 from the mature ones. 



Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 73; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 262: 

 pi. 18; Bull. Soc. Acclim. 52: 54. f. 13; Schelle, Handb. Kakteenk. f. 75, as Echinocactus 

 ingens; Reiche, Flem. Bot. f. 163, as C'ereus ingens; Nat. Geogr. Mag. 21 : 701 ; Plant World 

 11": f. 3; Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 8: f. 3; MacDougal, Bot. N. Amer. Des. pi. 17, in part; 

 Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 27: 87; Mollers Deutsche Gart. Zeit. 29: 439. f. 15. 



5. Echinocactus platyacanthus Link and Otto, Verh. Ver. Beford. Gartenb. 3: 423. 1827. 



Stems nearly globular, 5 dm. high, 6 dm. broad, light green, very woolly at apex; ribs 21 to 30, acute; 

 spines brownish at first, grayish in age; radial spines 4, spreading, 12 to 16 mm. long; central spines 

 3 or 4, spreading, 3 cm. long; flowers 3 cm. long, long-woolly; outer perianth-segments lanceolate, 

 mucronate; inner perianth-segments obtuse, yellow; stigma-lobes 10. 



Fig. 187. Echinocactus visnaga. 



