CACTACE®. . 57 
the branches ; the younger ones easily break off and stick to the skin of men or animals. The 
tubercles are obovate, narrowed below, and about 6 lines in length, arranged in 5 or 8 spirals; 
areole oval, somewhat immersed, with bunches of fine straw-colored bristles at the upper edge. 
Spines very variable, always with large loose sheaths; in a spetimen before me I find 7-8 
radiating spines ; the upper ones and the central one equal, about 12-14 lines long; the lower 
ones 6-8 lines long, with a few still smaller ones below; in other specimens the upper spines 
are reduced in size or are wanting ; flowers dark-red, salverform, about 14 inch in diameter ; 
fruit said to be spinulose, but always abortive, as Dr. Parry has often satisfied himself, and 
usually proliferous. This species somewhat resembles O. arborescens, but is easily distinguished 
by the short and tumid joints, short tubercles, spiny fruit, ete. The alliance with the next 
species and with O. Bigelovii is much closer. They represent the same type east of the California 
mountains that this does on the Pacific coast; just as O. echinocarpa in the Colorado valley rep- 
resents another type which has on the coast its representative in O. serpentina. 
20. O. FuLG@ma (sp. nov.): caule erecto arborescente flexuoso ; ramis numerosis divaricatis ; 
articulis ovatis seu ovato-cylindricis tumidis glaucescentibus ad ramorum apicem congestis ; 
tuberculis ovato-oblongis sub-prominulis ; foliis ovatis cuspidatis ; pulvillis pulvinatis ovatis to- 
mentosis setas pallide stramineas et aculeos 7-9 subequales laxe vaginatos undique porrectos 
stellatos gerentibus ; floris parvi purpurei ovario ovato pulvillis 25-30 albo-tomentosis predito 
setis aculeisque destituto ; sepalis tubi 8-10 orbiculatis obtusis crenulatis ; petalis 8, exterioribus 
cuneatis retusis crenulatis, intimis lanceolatis acutis cetera superantibus ; stigmatibus 6 erectis ; 
bacca ovata pulposa vix tuberculata plane umbilicata seepissime sterili et fasciculatim prolifera ; 
seminibus parvis irregulariter angulatis rostratis anguste commissuratis ; cotyledonibus ere: 
lariter incumbentibus. (Tab. LX-XV, fig. 18.) 
Throughout all the Sierras in western Sonora, named by the inhabitants ‘‘ Vela de Cojote,”’ 
whence the specific name, which however would be just as appropriate for most other cylindric 
Opuntie, which are often visible for several miles when the sun strikes the glistening sheaths 
of their spines: fl. in July and August.—Stems 5-12 feet high, flexuous with few divaricate 
branches ; joints clustered at their ends, 3-8 inches long and often 2 inches in diameter; ‘ dull 
grayish, inclined to olive’’; tubercles ovate-elongate, 6-7 lines long; leaves thick and only 
about 1 line long; spines almost equal in length, (1-1} inch,) stellate and not much deflexed ; 
completely hiding the surface of the young joints; ovary about 10 lines long; flower cup- 
shaped, mostly less than an inch in diameter ; fruit a plump fleshy berry, oval, rounded, not or 
only slightly tuberculated, 1-1} inch long, a little less in diameter, and entirely spineless ; 
characterized by the large white tomentose pulvilli. Seeds 1-1} line in diameter, or with the 
beak often 2 lines long, much compressed, and thin and very angular, often oddly shaped. The 
fruit is not rarely sterile and proliferous, and becomes pendulous from the weight of the young 
sprouts attached to it. 
21. O. Wurrpier, E. & B. in Pacif. R. Rep., var. 9 sprnoston: elatior, erecta; articulis 
cylindricis ; tuberculis ovatis confertis; pulvillis parce tomentosis, vix setosis ; aculeis 12-14 
stramineo-vaginatis stellato-porrectis ; flore rubro ; ovarii ovati tuberculati pulvillis 20-30 
albo-tomentosis setas stramineas et aculeolos paucos mox deciduos gerentibus ; sepalis 8 orbicu- 
latis cuspidatis ; petalis 8-10 spathulatis cuspidatis ; bacca subglobosa leviter tuberculata in- 
ermi; seminum commissura lineari. 
Frost the Gila south to the Santa Cruz river and Tucson, and further east, Schott: fl. in June, 
8 1 
