208 



THE CACTACEAE. 



235. Opuntia rubescens Salm-Dyck in De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 474. 1828. 



Opuntia catacantha Link and Otto in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 166. 1837. 



Consoka rubescens Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862. 



Consoled catacantha Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862. 



Opuntia guanicana Schumann in Giirke, Monatsschr. Kakttcnk. 18: 180. 1908. 



Trunk erect, nearly cylindric below, flattened above, 3 to 6 meters high, sometimes 1.5 dm. in 

 diameter, branching above, its areoles bearing several or many acicular spines up to 8 cm. long or 

 more, or spineless: ultimate joints thin and flat, mostly dark green or reddish green, not reticulate- 

 areolate except when young, oblong to oblong-obovate, 2.5 dm. long or less, mostly 2 to 4 times as 

 long as wide, the terminal ones often much smaller ; areoles i to 1.5 cm. apart, bearing several acicular 

 nearly white spines i to 6 cm. long, or spineless; flowers yellow, orange or red, about 2 cm. broad; 

 ovary long-tuberculate, 4 to 5 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. in diameter; petals obovate, apiculate; sta- 

 mens about half as long as the petals; fruit reddish, obovoid or subglobose, 5 to 8 cm. in diameter, 

 spiny or spineless; seeds suborbicular, 6 to 8 mm. in diameter. 



FIGS. 263, 264. Opuntia rubescens. 



Tyf>c locality: Cited as Brazil, but erroneously. 



Distribution: Mona and Porto Rico to Tortola, St. Croix, and Guadeloupe. 



Culebra, St. Thomas, St. Jan, and Montserrat plants agree with the description of 

 Opuntia rubescens, which clearly belongs with the Spinosissimae (Cruci formes), as pointed 

 out by Berger, rather than with the South American series Inarmatac, where it was placed 

 by Schumann; it is a spineless state of 0. catacantha, as was conclusively proven by us 

 through field observations in the Virgin Islands, and greenhouse plants of 0. rubescens 

 develop spines. 



Both the spiny and spineless races exhibit remarkable proliferation of the ovaries, 

 these often forming chains of several joints while attached to the plant; these, falling to 

 the ground, strike root and form many small, flattened joints 2 to 4 cm. long, as in Opuntia 

 tnonilifonnis, to which this species is otherwise closely related. 



Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Card. 7: f. 6, as Opuntia. 



