NOTES ON CACTEiE. 123 



Opuntia tesajo* Engelra. in Coiilt. 1. c. 448. "With very- 

 short, woody stem, and growing in little clumps 3 dm. or less in 

 diameter; joints slender and not distinctly tuberculate; flowers 

 simple, bell-shaped, yellow — Type, Gabb 26 in Herb. Mo. Bot. 

 Gard. 'Among rocks, especially toward the west coast and in the 

 more central portions.'" The type, such as it was, is missing. 



A description like this must, in the absence of the fragment rep- 

 resenting the type, be forever uncertain. The plant, with which it 

 is now doubtfully identified^ is 0. leptocaulis stipata, as to Mr. 

 Brandegee's specimens from San Gregorio, San Enrique and Agua 

 Dulce, so referred by Professor Coulter. It is no form of 0. 

 leptocaulis. 



Opuntia rotundifolia Brandg., Zoe, ii, 21. The seeds of this 

 plant look, in the dried specimen, much like the pulvini on the fruit? 

 which probably is the reason Professor Coulter could not find them. 

 Abundant living specin.ens recently received from San Jose del 

 Cabo sliov^ that the stems are not always spineless, nor the leaves 

 always round. It may be identical with Pereskia rotundifolia DC, 

 which appears from the picture to be not true Pereskia, but a Pere- 

 skioid Opuntia. A very similar, if not identical, plant has been 

 collected at Topolobampo by Captain Porter, and later by Dr. 

 Palmer, who says that it is called "the yellow rose of Sinaloa." 



*The tasajo is a plant resembling the pitahaya in the inner arrangement 

 of its branches, which also are bare of leaves and thorny, although they are 

 not so large and thick, nor of one piece, like those of the pitahaya, but 

 each one is composed of various pieces, of about two inches in length, and 

 united by certain stems, which separate during a high wind, or anything 

 rudely touching them. These pieces detached from the bush, keep green for 

 many months, although there may not be any moisture in the ground; and, 

 if rain should fall before they are gathered, they take root and form new 

 plants. 



The fruit of the tasajo is similar to the tuna (prickly pear), but never 

 ripens, consequently is of no use, but on the coi^rary is a nuisance, as it 

 blocks the roads. Only in some places, where firewood is scarce, its branches 

 answer for burning, as it kindles readily, but consumes quickly. The pieces 

 of the tasajo are smaller and not so long as the little finger. — From Hist, of 

 California by Father Clavijerroin Eoss Browne's Sketch of Lower California. 



