OPUNTIA. 



105 



6 mm. long; spines (if present) solitary or 2 to 4, brownish red or gray, 2 to 4 cm. long; flowers yellow, 

 6 cm. broad; petals obovate; fruit red, juicy but insipid, obovoid to clavate, 22 1035 mm. long, 15 mm. 

 in diameter at thickest part, bearing few areoles and no spines; umbilicus slightly depressed in the 

 center; seeds i to 8, about 4 mm. broad. 



Type locality: Apalachicola, Florida. 



Distribution: Sandy soil from northern Florida to Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. 



In February 1916, Dr. J. K. Small visited the coastal islands near Charleston, South 

 Carolina, for the purpose of collecting Gibbes's Opuntia frustulenta. He found this species 

 very common on Folly Island and on the Isle of Palms, where it grows abundantly in the 

 sand, and also very variable as to shape and size of joints. He says the joints break off 

 easily and attach themselves to one 's clothing like the sand spur, making progress over these 

 islands difficult and painful. It is the common belief that this species rarely flowers. It 

 usually flowers when first brought into 

 cultivation, but rarely afterward, this 

 doubtless being due to unsuitable green- 

 house conditions. 



The fruit described was collected by 

 Dr. J. K. Small, December 10, 1917, at 

 Apalachicola, Florida, the type locality. 



According to Professor L. R. Gibbes, 

 it is known as dildoes about Charleston. 



Illustration: Maund, Botanist 5: 

 pi. 246. 



Plate xvii, figure 6, represents 

 flowering joints of a plant sent from La 

 Mortola, Italy, to the New York Botani- 

 cal Garden in 1912; plate xvm, figure i , 

 shows the plant collected by Dr. Small 

 on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, in 

 1916. 



Herbarium specimens apparently 

 representing a related species, were 

 collected by W. I/. McAtee at Cameron, 

 Louisiana, in 1910 (No. 1955). 



87. Opuntia tracyi Britton, Torreyaii: 152. 



191 1. 



Low, diffusely much branched, pale green, about 2 dm. high or less; older joints oblong 

 to linear-oblong, flat, 6 to 8 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. wide, about i cm. thick; young joints scarcely 

 flattened or terete, i cm. thick ; areoles elevated, 5 to 10 mm. apart ; spines i to 4, acicular, light gray with 

 darker tips, 3.5 cm. long or less; glochids numerous, brownish; corolla pure yellow, 4 cm. broad; 

 ovary 1.5 cm. long, bearing a few triangular acute scales similar to the outermost sepals, which are 

 2 mm. long; sepals triangular-ovate, 5 to 15 mm. long, the outer green, the inner yellowish with a 

 green blotch; petals obovate, apiculate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long; filaments yellow, i cm. long; anthers white. 



In sandy soil near the coast, Biloxi, Mississippi. 



Figure 128 is from a photograph of the plant collected by S. M. Tracy at Biloxi, 

 Mississippi, in 1911. 



88. Opuntia pusilla Haworth, Syn. PI. Succ. 195. 1812. 



FIG. 128. Opuntia tracyi. 



Cactus pusillus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803. 

 Cactus foliosus Willdenow, Enum. PI. Suppl. 35. 1813. 

 Opuntia foliosa Salm-Dyck in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 471. 



1828. 



Low, usually prostrate; joints narrow, more or less flattened, sometimes nearly terete, hardly 

 tuberculate, light green in color; leaves 6 mm. long, linear, early deciduous; areoles remote; spines 



