OPUNTIA. 



203 



229. Opuntia nashii Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 3: 446. 1905. 



Tree-like, or sometimes bushy, dull green; main axis round, 

 i to 4 meters high, 5 to 12 cm. in diameter, spiny; branches flat 

 or becoming round below, the principal ones continuous, i meter 

 long or more, 6 cm. wide or less, crenate, blunt; lateral branches 

 opposite or alternate, oblong to linear-oblong, often 3 dm. long, 

 and 8 cm. wide, only about 6 mm. thick, blunt, crenate; areoles 

 i to 3 cm. apart, slightly elevated; spines mostly 5 at each areole 

 (2 to 5), divergent, slender, straight, light gray, pungent, the 

 longer 3 to 6 cm. long; glochids very small, brownish; ovary 3 

 cm. long, 1.5 cm. thick, somewhat clavate, tubercled, the tuber- 

 cles bearing areoles and spines similar to those of the joints, but 

 the spines somewhat shorter; flowers 1.5 cm. broad when ex- 

 panded, red; petals broadly oval to obovate, blunt, about 8 mm. 

 long, much longer than the stamens. 



Type locality: Inagua, Bahamas. 



Distribution: Andros, Crooked Island, Fortune Island, 

 Atwood Cay, Caicos Islands, Turks Islands, Ship Channel 

 Cay, and Inagua, Bahamas. 



Figure 252 is from a photograph of a plant at Matthew 

 Town, Inagua, Bahamas, taken by George V. Nash, in 1904; 

 figure 253 is from a photograph of a plant from the same 

 place in the collection of the New York Botanical Garden. 



230. Opuntia bahamana sp. nov. 



Branched from near the base, bushy, about 1.5 m. high; 

 joints oblong to lanceolate, flat, and thin, i to 5 dm. long, 4 to 

 10 cm. wide, dull green, obtuse, scarcely undulate; leaves red, 

 subulate, 3 cm. long; areoles 1.5 to 3 cm. apart, scarcely elevated, 

 about 2 mm. in diameter, spineless, or bearing i to 4 acicular yel- 

 low spines 2 cm. long or less when young; glochids few and short; 

 flower about 6 cm. broad; petals obovate. rose-tinted below, yel- 

 lowish rose above; sepals dark rose, whitish margined. 



Distribution: Rocky slopes, The Bright, Cat Island, Ba- 

 hamas, collected by N. L. Britton and C. F. Millspaugh, 

 March 1907, No. 5794. 



This plant was tentatively referred by us (Smiths. 

 Misc. Coll. 50: 525. 1908) to Opuntia lanccolata Haworth. 

 It has been grown under glass at New York ever since, 

 but does not respond well to greenhouse conditions. 



It is here included in the series Spinosissimac, but with hesitation, its bushy habit 

 and larger flowers being anomalous in this group. 



Figure 254 represents a joint of the type specimen above cited; figure 255 is copied 

 from a sketch of a flower made by Dr. Millspaugh on Cat Island, when the plant was 

 discovered. 



231. Opuntia macracantha Grisebach, Cat. PI. Cub. 116. 1866. 



Erect, the trunk up to 15 cm. in diameter, its areoles i to 2 cm. broad, bearing many brownish 

 glochids and several divergent spines 15 cm. long or less; upper portion of the trunk, and the 

 ultimate, oblong, or oblong-ovate, spreading branches flat, green, faintly shining, the areoles 2 to 

 3 cm. apart, scarcely elevated, the numerous glochids brown; spines i to 4, up to 15 cm. long, nearly 

 white, stout, subulate, or wanting; flowers often numerous; ovary 2.5 to 3 cm. long, densely beset 

 with glochid-bearing areoles; petals orange-yellow, i to 1.3 cm. long. 



Type locality: Cuba, in maritime depressions. 



Distribution: Southern coast of eastern Cuba and adjacent plains. 



FIG. 253. Opuntia nash 



