CACTUS FAMILY 547 



3. ECHINOCACTUS Link & Otto 



Plants with cylindric, oblong, obovoid or globose stems and numerous ribs, in 

 all ours spinif erous. Flowers in our species eampanulate, borne on areoles among 

 the nascent spinif erous areoles, therefore at or near the summit of the stem. Ovary- 

 scaly. Fruit globose to ovoid, in our species all dehiscing by a basal pore. Seeds 

 black, rarely brown, smooth, pitted or tuberculate. — Species about 260, North and 

 South America. (Greek echinos, spine, and cactus.) 



The plants are mostly of large size, many of them bearing showy flowers. Some of the larger 

 plants afford a welcome succor to thirst-famished travelers in the deserts, who by slicing off the 

 summit of the stem and pounding up the succulent tissue form a basin in which collects a quantity 

 of potable juice. Phonograph needles have been manufactured from the stout corneous spines of 

 certain species ; from the flesh of some a sweetmeat is made. 

 Spines stout, flattened. 



Scales of the ovary acieular, their axils copiously woolly; stems globose, aggregated 



1. E. polycephdlus. 



Scales of the ovary obtuse ; stems simple, rarely few-branched. 



Scales of the ovary numerous, spirally imbricated ; stems cylindrical ; spines elongated.... 



2, E. aeanthodes. 

 Scales of the ovary few, scattered, scarious. 



Scales of the ovary naked in the axils; stems depressed-globose; spines short 



3. E. viridescens. 

 Scales of the ovary tufted in the axils; stems oblong; central spines hooked 



4. E. polyancistrus. 

 Spines subulate; scales of the ovary few, scattered 5. E. johnsonii. 



1. E. polycephalus Engelm. & Bigel. Nigger-head Cactus. Stems globose, 

 rarely oblong or obovate, 8 to 10 inches in diameter, forming compact heaped-up 

 clumps of 10 to 60 heads; ribs 10 to 20, tuberculately irregular; spines all stout, 

 flattened, reddish-gray when young, becoming ashy-gray, the centrals 3 to 5, un- 

 equal, 1 to 3 inches long, curving but not hooked, radials 8 to 10, shorter and un- 

 equal; flowers yellow, IY2 to 2 inches long, little surpassing the acieular scales of 

 the ovary and enveloped in the abundant wool of their axils; fruit dry, densely 

 woolly; seeds angulate, minutely tuberculate. 



Rocky places, 2000 to 5000 feet: Inyo Co.; eastern Mohave Desert; mountains 

 on north side of the Colorado Desert. East to adjacent Nevada and Arizona, 

 Reported also from Utah and Sonora. Feb.-Mar. 



Locs. — Panamint Eange, Parish; Ivanpah Mts., Parish; Goffs, Parish; Barstow, Jepson 

 4781 ; Cushenbury Canon, Parish; Coyote Holes, Little San Bernardino Mts., Mimz 5294. 



Eefs. — EcHiNOCACTUS POLYCEPHALUS Engelm. & Bigel. Pae. R. Eep. 4:31, pi. 3, figs. 4-6 

 (1856), type loc. eastern Mohave Desert, Bigelow; Proc. Am. Acad. 3:276 (1856); Parish in 

 Jepson, Man. 659 (1925). 



2. E. aeanthodes Lem. California Barrel Cactus. California Bisnaga. 

 (Fig. 250.) Stems simple, erect, stout, cylindric, 2 to 8 feet high; ribs 18 to 28, 

 approximately tuberculate; nascent areoles abundantly woolly; central spines 

 1 to 4, stout, flattened or obscurely ridged, erect or deeurved, 2 to 6 inches long, 

 unequal, the longer ones curved, or even slightly hooked ; radials 5 to 7, stout, and 

 3 to 7, slenderer; flowers yellow, 1 to 2 inches long, outer segments narrowly ob- 

 long, the inner linear; filaments yellow; style greenish, stigma-lobes about 14, 

 yellow; scales of the ovary ovoid, more or less fimbriate, naked in the axils; fruit 

 oblong-obovate, 1 to 1% inches long, greenish, thick- walled, becoming dry; seeds 

 smooth and shining. 



Rocky hills or gravelly benches, -75 to 1130 feet : Mohave and Colorado deserts. 

 East to Nevada, south to northern Lower California. Frequent; usually solitary 

 and few, rarely abundant and approximate. Apr.-May. 



It is rarely that small globose branches are developed at the base or on the sides of the stems ; 

 younger plants, 2 to 3 feet high, are sometimes elongated-obovoid. The spines are usually more 

 or less red, but are sometimes yellow or white ; they vary greatly in length and degree of curva- 

 ture, and are frequently very long, abundant and much intertangied. 



Locs. — Panamint Range, Parish; Ivanpah Mts., Parish; Providence Mts., Muns 4- Johnston 



