OPUNTIA. 103 



81. Opuntia taylori Britton and Rose, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 50: 520. 1908. 



Opuntia hattoniana Britton and Rose in Johnston and Tryon, Rep. Prickly-Pear Comm. 97. 1914. 



Prostrate, widely branched; joints linear to linear-oblong, 12 cm. long or less, bright green, i to 



2 cm. wide, turgid, glabrous or pubescent; areoles i to 1.5 cm. apart, not elevated; spines acicular, 



3 to 6 at each areole, yellowish brown, becoming white, 4 cm. long or less; glochids yellowish brown, 



3 mm. long; flowers yellow, small, the petals about i cm. long; ovary pyriform, i to 1.5 cm. long, 

 its areoles with few bristles and spineless. 



Type locality: Between Gonaives and L,a Hotte Rochee, on road to Terre Neuve, 

 Haiti. 



Distribution: Deserts of Haiti and of Azua, Santo Domingo. 



This species, while similar to 0. repens, has more terete joints. 



It was first collected in 1905 in Haiti by Nash and Taylor, and upon this collection the 

 species was based. In 1913 Rose, Fitch, and Russell collected it in the Azua desert of 

 Santo Domingo. In this last collection the joints are pubescent, but otherwise the plants 

 seem to be the same, although we at one time thought they might be distinct; in fact, in 

 their report on the opuntias, Johnston and Tryon published the Santo Domingo plant as 

 new, from notes given to them. 



Plate xvn, figure 2, represents joints of the plant collected by Rose, Fitch, and Russell 

 at Azua, Santo Domingo, in 1913. 



82. Opuntia repens Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 277. 1881. 



Stems erect or ascending, 5 dm. high or less, commonly much branched, often forming dense, 

 flat masses 4 meters in diameter, glabrous or pubescent, green or olive-green; joints oblong to linear 

 5 to 1 6 cm. long, 3.5 cm. broad or less, usually strongly flattened; areoles small, bearing brown wool 

 and a few cobwebby white hairs ; spines when very young pinkish, becoming brown, afterwards fading 

 out, acicular, numerous, 3.5 cm. long, or less; glochids numerous, yellow, tardily developing; flowers 



4 cm. broad, bright yellow, fading to salmon-colored ; ovary and fruit with or without spines ; fruit red, 

 2 to 3 cm. long, i to few-seeded. 



Type locality: Near Guanica, Porto Rico. 



Distribution: Porto Rico and its islands, Mona, Muertos, Vieques, and Culebra, to 

 Virgin Gorda and St. Croix. 



Opuntia repens has long been confused with 0. curassamca. It was first collected on 

 St. Thomas, where it is abundant and a troublesome weed, and was illustrated by Pfeiffer 

 and Otto in the year 1843. It was described by Bello in 1881, who thought it might be 

 a variety of 0. spinosissima. According to Bello, it is called olaga in Porto Rico, which 

 is a corruption of ohulaga; the name suckers is used for it in the Virgin Islands. The plant 

 is freely distributed by its fragile, clinging joints. Unlike its relative, 0. curassamca, this 

 plant flowers freely, blooming in late spring and summer. 



Opuntia repens Karwinsky in Salm-Dyck (Hort. Dyck. 361. 1834) has been published 

 only as a synonym, and therefore does not invalidate the use of Bello's name. 



The plant is recorded by Johnston and Tryon (Rep. Prickly-Pear Comm. 95. 1914) 

 as 0. curassamca taylori. 



Illustration: Pfeiffer and Otto, Abbild. Beschr. Cact. i: pi. 6, f. 2, as Opuntia citras- 

 savica. 



Plate xvn, figure 3, represents joints of the plant collected near Guanica, Porto Rico, 

 by Dr. Britton in 1913 ; figure 4 is from a plant obtained by the same collector the same year 

 on Virgin Gorda; figure 5 is copied from the illustration above cited. 



82a. Opuntia pestifer sp. nov. (See Appendix p. 217.) 



83. Opuntia borinquensis sp. nov. 



Plants few-branched, forming colonies often 2 meters across, 5 dm. high or less; joints readily 

 detached, oblong to obovate-oblong, dull green, glabrous, compressed but turgid, 5 to 8 cm. long, 

 4 cm. wide or less, about 1.5 cm. thick; areoles small, i to 2 cm. apart, bearing 2 or 3 acicular spines, 



