I 82 THE CACTACEAE. 



numbers of this cactus are plowed out in the breaking of the sod land. Occasionally, the 

 farmers gather them and haul them to the margins of the field and there build fences 

 much like the stone walls so familiar in New England. The plants are easily corded and 

 the strong sharp spines make the fences quite formidable." 



Echinocactus courantianus Lemaire is given as a synonym of this species by Tabouret 

 (Monogr. Cact. 196. 1853) and seems never to have been described. Melocactus laciniatns 

 Berlandier is only mentioned by Engelmann (Cact. Mex. Bound. 27. 1859). 



The plant is called devil's pincushion and devil's head cactus. 



Illustrations: Alianza Cientifica Universal 3 : opp. 222 ; Cact. Mex. Bound, pi. 33, f . 1 to 

 6; Bliihende Kakteen 1: pi. 50; Gartenflora 32: 20; 37: pi. 1286; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 

 57; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 1: 501. f. 693; Riimpler, Sukkulenten 185. f. 103; Ann. Rep. 

 Smiths. Inst. 1908: pi. 2, f. 1 ; Fbrster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 58, 59; Orcutt, Rev. Cact. 56; 

 Schulz, 500 Wild Fl. San Antonio pi. 13; Thomas, Zimmerkultur Kakteen 39; Schelle, 

 Handb. Kakteenk. f. 89; Watson, Cact. Cult. 121. f. 46, as Echinocactus texensis. 



Plate xix, figure 3, shows a plant sent by Dr. MacDougal to the New York Botanical 

 Garden from Austin, Texas, in 1902, which flowered in 1904 and 1905; figure 4 shows a 

 fruit, painted by D. G. Passmore in Washington, D. C, of a plant collected by F. E. 

 Upton near Fort Worth, Texas, in 1907; figure 5 shows a seed from a plant collected by 

 Robert Runyon at Brownsville, Texas, in 1920. Figure 192 is from a photograph of a plant 

 which flowered and fruited in Washington, D. C. This was sent from Fort Worth, Texas, 

 by F. E. Upton in 1907. 



21. ASTROPHYTUM Lemaire, Caet. Gen. Nov. Sp. 3. 1839. 



Plants globular or more or less flattened to short-eylindric ; ribs few, very prominent, more or 

 less covered with white, radiating, hairy scales; spines usually wanting, weak or subulate in two 

 species; flowers borne at the top of the plant, large, yellowish with a reddish center, soon fading, per- 

 sistent, campanulate to short-funnelform; fruit globular, covered with brown, scarious, imbricating 

 scales, these woolly in their axils, and more or less pungent; seeds dark brown, smooth and shining, 

 with a large depressed hilum having inturned margins. 



Four species, all Mexican, are here recognized; the type species is Astro phylum myrio- 

 stigma Lemaire. 



The generic name is from darrip star, and 4>vtoi> plant, referring to the star-like shape of 

 the plant. 



Key to Species. 



Spines wanting. 



Plants globular to columnar; flowers 4 to 6 cm. long 1. A. myriostigma 



Plants much depressed; flowers 3 cm. long 2. A. asterias 



Spines present. 



Spines flat, ribbon-like, hardly pungent 3. A. capricorne 



Spines subulate 4. A . ornatum 



1. Astrophytum myriostigma Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 4. 1839. 



Cereus callicoche Galeotti in Scheidweiler, Bull. Acad. Sci. Brux. 6 1 : 88. 1839. 

 Echinocactus myriostigma Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 22. 1845. 

 Astrophytum prismaticum Lemaire, Cactees 50. 1868. 



Echinocactus myriostigma columnaris Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 321. 1898. 

 Echinocactus myriostigma nudus R. Meyer, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 22: 136. 1912. 



Plants solitary or cespitose, globular to eylindric, up to 6 dm. high; ribs usually 5, sometimes 6, 

 8, or rarely even 10, very broad, acute, usually covered with white woolly scales but sometimes 

 naked; spines wanting, at least on old plants; flowers 4 to 6 cm. long; outer perianth-segments narrow, 

 with brown scarious tips; inner perianth-segments oblong; scales on ovary and flower-tube scarious, 

 imbricated, narrow, often bristly tipped, with long wool in their axils. 



Type locality: Not cited. 

 Distribution: Northern central Mexico. 



