1 84 



THE CACTACEAE. 



4 to 6 (in the original description 8 to 10), somewhat spreading or appressed, i to 2 cm. long; glochids 

 few, brownish; areoles small, 1.5 cm. apart; leaves small, brownish; flowers red; fruit globular, 

 yellowish, its areoles filled with long, weak glochids; umbilicus broad, only slightly depressed. 



Type locality: In Mexico. 



Distribution: Oaxaca, Mexico. 



This species is very near Opuntia streptacantha, and in many cases it is difficult to 

 separate them. It is also near O. pilifera, but the areoles are not so hairy. Weber, who 

 first described it, gives no definite locality for the species; but Dr. Rose has examined, at 

 La Mortola, Italy, a living plant sent by Weber which seems to be the same as one of the 

 large opuntias from Tehuacan, Mexico. 



Opuntia chavcna Griffiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. 

 Card. 19: 264. pi. 23, in part. 1908) is a 

 near relative of 0. hyptiacantha or not dis- 

 tinct from it. 



Illustration: Rep. Mo. Bot. Card. 21: 

 pi. 24, as Opuntia nignta. 



Figure 224 represents a joint of a plant 

 obtained for the New York Botanical Garden 

 from the collection of M. Simon, St. Ouen, 

 Paris, France, in 1901. 



204. Opuntia streptacantha Lemaire, Cact. Gen. 

 Nov. Sp. 62. 1839. 



Much branched, up to 5 meters high, sometimes 

 with a trunk 45 cm. in diameter; joints obovate 

 to orbicular, 25 to 30 cm. long, dark green; areoles 

 small, rather close together for this group; spines 

 numerous, spreading or some of them appressed, 

 white ; glochids reddish brown, very short ; flowers 



7 to 9 cm. broad, yellow to orange, the sepals red- 

 dish; filaments greenish or reddish; stigma-lobes 



8 to 1 2 , green ; fruit globular, 5 cm. in diameter, dull 

 red or sometimes yellow, both within and without. 



Type locality: Not cited. 



Distribution : Very common on the Mex- 

 ican table-lands, especially on the deserts of 

 San Luis Potosi. 



This species is known as tuna cardona or nopal cardon, and is one of the most impor- 

 tant economic opuntias in Mexico. It has many forms and seems to grade into some of 

 the species which we have here recognized. 



Opuntia cardona Weber (Diet. Hort. Bois 895. 1898) and 0. coindettii Weber (Diet. 

 Hort. Bois 895. 1898) are two names given as synonyms of the species by Weber, but they 

 were never published. 0. diplacantha (Berger, Hort. Mortol. 232. 1912) must be referred 

 here, but of this, so far as we know, there is no published description. Berger has distrib- 

 uted living specimens which we are inclined to refer here. 



Opuntia pachona Griffiths (Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 21: 168. pi. 22. 1910) is closely related 

 to 0. streptacantha, if not a race of that species. Opuntia megacantha tennis pina Salm-Dyck 

 (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 45. 1845) was given as a new name for 0. lasiacantha, but was 

 never described. 



Illustrations: N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 60: pi. i ; Safford, Ann. Rep. Smiths. Inst. 

 1908: pi. 9, f. 6; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 102' : pi. i ; 116: pi. i, this last as tuna 

 cardona; Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 3 6a : f. 70, this last as Opuntia psnutiotitna. 



Figure 225 represents a joint of a plant received from C. Werckle in 1902 as 0. cardona. 



FIG. 225. Opuntia streptacantha. Xo 5. 



