NEORAIMONDIA. 



181 



This species is described from a plant sent by the late Federico Eichlam, in 1909, from 

 Guatemala, which flowered in Washington, April 1910. It differs from Myrtillocactus 

 geometrizans in its larger, greener branches and different armament. 



Figure 256 shows a flower and two fruits of the type plant. 



FIG. 256. Myrtillocactus eichlamii. Flower and fruits. Natural size. 



38. NEORAIMONDIA gen. nov. 



A very stout cactus, the stems branched at base; branches erect, columnar, few-ribbed, the 

 ribs separated by broad intervals, very spiny; areoles brown-felted, enormously developed, thick, 

 the flowering ones sometimes elongated and branched, forming cephalium-like masses, these spineless 

 but with ridges of short brown felt; flowers 2 on the areoles or solitary, funnelform, the tube stout, 

 longer than the limb; perianth-segments oblong; scales of the ovary and flower-tube with short 

 brown wool in their axils ; fruit ellipsoid to globular, covered with globular areoles with short brown 

 wool and short spines; seed dull black with pitted surface and a depressed hilum. 



A monotypic genus of western Peru. It is named in honor of Antonio Raimondi 

 (1825-1890), the great geographer and naturalist of Peru. 



Berger says of the plant, which he referred to the subgenus 

 Eulychnia (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 16: 68. 1905): 



I 



Wm 



y'f&f'JH 

 o^-v " 



FIG. 257. Neoraimondia macrostibas. 



FIG. 258. Flower and 

 enlarged areole of N. 

 macrostibas. Xo.?. 



"But I am quite aware that in this form the subgenus Eulychnia is more artificial than natural. 

 For instance, C. macrostibas A. Berger differs greatly from the rest, especially by its enlarged and 

 prolonged flowering areoles. But the material at hand is so scanty that I must refrain from any 

 further statement." "Cereus macrostibas A. Berger was originally described by Schumann as a 

 Pilocereus, and as such it is another heterogeneous form of this conglomerate genus." 



