A Visit to Smith Islais^d 151 



Drummondii Graham (0. Pes-Corvi Le Conte). This species was 

 described from Florida and is given in Small's Botany of the South- 

 ern United States as occurring on the coast of Florida and Georgia. 

 It was found by me on the Isle of Palms, S. C, and recorded in my 

 account of the flora of that island (Torrya 5: 143. 1905). The first, 

 apparently, and, so far as I know, the only* North Carolina record is 

 by Kearney from Ocracoke Island (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 5: Xo. 5, 

 pp. 270, 313, 317. 1900). 



Of particular interest is the variation in the appearance of this 

 plant when growing under different conditions. It is described as 

 having small, nearly cylindrical joints, and this form we found here, 

 and also on the previous day in exposed sand at Wrightsville. But 

 when growing in rich black sandy loam, protected from the high 

 winds and drifting sand, it may assume a very different appearance, 

 as shown in our plates 13 and 14. The plants shown were in a recent 

 small clearing well back from the shore, and in this rich spot the 

 joints were broad and flat and many times larger than usual. 

 Smaller ones approaching the shore forms were also found in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the large ones, and all intermediate sizes 

 also appeared. As mentioned by Dr. Small, the joints separate very 

 easily from one another and they attach themselves with exasperat- 

 ing readiness and firmness to one's clothing, or anatomy. This Opun- 

 tia, called "dildoes" by the negroes of the South Carolina sea-islands, 

 is easily distinguished from the much more common and more widely 

 distributed 0/nmlia Opuntia by the several long slender spines to each 

 areola, the smaller fruit, and usually much smaller and cylindrical 

 joints. 



Among the woody plants the most interesting to us were the sub- 

 tropical evergreen magnolia {Magnolia grandiflora) and the mock 

 orange or Carolina laurel-cherry (Laurocerasus carol uiianus), botli 

 of which were scarce and seem to reach here their northern limits in 

 the natural state. They are both highly prized ornamental trce^ in 

 cultivation throughout the South Atlantic and Gnlf States. 



♦Except in tho Journal of the Xew York Rotnnical Ganlon 10: 71 liUS wlipre Dr Small 

 says that Dr. R. M. Harper told him "of an observation he made on one of" the sca-ishinds of 

 North Carolina, where a number of joints of this small but viciouslv armed i)riekl.v-pear had 

 become firmly attached to the lips of a cow while if was graziuK." ' Dr. Small also refers to 

 this Opuntia in two other articles in the same journal, is: 237. 1917, and 10: 1. 1918. 



